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Today's Paper | December 21, 2024

Published 24 Dec, 2009 12:00am

World leaders fail to deliver at Copenhagen

COP 15 has ended without setting emission targets, disappointing millions of inhabitants of the Earth.

Those who pollute the most and have used global warming as a tool for making more and more money in the name of Cap and Trade (Permits, Off-settings, CDM, etc) proved to be heartless people, indifferent to the sufferings of the nations poised to be wiped out from the face of the Earth like Bhola Island of Bangladesh, Nuaru in South Pacific region-just eight square miles in size and many islands of the Maldives.

These nations and many others like them have hardly any contribution to atmospheric emissions.

The agreement between the US and four others (Brazil, India, China, and South Africa) privately is yet another demonstration of unilateral decision-making on the part of the US and its allies.

Regardless of what they have agreed upon, just 1.5 degrees rise of atmospheric temperature is sufficient to total inundation of these small nations.

Capitalist approach should not be applied to air pollution problems.

Billions are being earned by selling and buying carbon credits like stock exchange shares under the umbrella of Cap and Trade all over the world, particularly in Europe.

So the real and clean solutions cannot be expected by the rich nations.

If this fraudulent busi-ness is not stopped, the world is going to see an- other financial crisis, even worse than that of the recent past.

S.M. IQBAL
Karachi

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