UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband on the Commonwealth and climate change
Posted by AlexT - 29/09/09 at 10:09 am?
UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, discusses the connection between the Commonwealth and climate change.
Category : Climate Change & Environment, homepage items, The Commonwealth's Relevance
Tags: climate change, Commonwealth, Miliband
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September 29th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Nice idea. But how much do developing countries really care about this issue?
Lots of focus on India, but Nigeria is huge. Bangladesh another big country, and possibly underwater in 50 years time, but when do you hear their leaders cmapigning on climate change.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:40 am
So Commonwealth meeting, as for sec Miliband says, can be a place for momentum on this issue. And countrys like nigeria and India and Bangladesh, as you say JamesFrench, can hear of how important issue this is.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I agree with JamesFrench. Whilst the impending danger of Climate Change is high on the agenda for western countries, I can’t help but feel that many African countries have more pressing and immediate problems to deal with. Rising sea temperatures and melting glaciers are not of great concern when you are facing a daily fight for food, clean water and against HIV/Aids and malaria.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I agree with Alex and James.
Would be interesting to hear what the Commonwealth foreign ministers said at the meeting Miliband chaired.
We know Maldives care deeply about this issue. But what of the others at the meeting?
Was it successfull or more talking?
September 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
One more thing!
Politicians are always flying to each others countries to sit in air conditioned rooms to discuss climate change! what is the carbon cost of this meeting! and what will be achieved.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
The Commonwealth is often said to have the “potential” to do something. Why is it not until 2009 that we are discussing what it can do. Surely, its time to act?
September 29th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
You can only build momentum if everyone agrees on an issue. It won?t be difficult to hear good things from the usual suspects, but Copenhagen needs EVERYBODY to agree to do something.
Is climate change on the Commonwealth Trinidad agenda? Perhaps someone could say.
For India, Nigeria, Ghana and all the other quickly developing countries to agree to a deal it will take lots of financial incentives from the West. And in case anybody didn?t realise, most Western governments are all broke.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I like your point Oba – what is the carbon-footprint of Copenhagen and what is being done about this?
Likewise the Trinidad meeting? Does the Commonwealth consider these issues?
Have we not come along way to even by considering these issues though?
September 30th, 2009 at 11:10 am
For Bangladesh climate change appears to be one of the biggest threats at the moment. cyclone, hurricane, devastating floods, storm etc are some of the common phenomenons that cause hundreds of deaths every year, thousands of houses to be destroyed.
the Rhetoric \the evergreen Bangladesh\ is too vogue now because of the consequences of some greedy and morally blinded politicians, government officials and business persons who are involved with illegal tree logging. Although there are some local and International NGOs working to protect and preserve the environment, there seems to be still lack of awareness about the environment among a large number of people. Some parts of the capital city are now so overpopulated and polluted…its too hard to expect a good life expectancy. It is very true that the government is not well equipped yet to cope with this problem because of lack of proper resources.
in this regard, The Hon. David Miliband’s speech brings hope for the 156+ millions people living in Bangladesh.
September 30th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
For anyone from, say, India or Nigeria or wherever.. perhaps you could tell us what kind of coverage climate issues get in your home country?
September 30th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Hi Mong – i know from reading this site that you are from Bangaldesh.
Is there a political message about climate change in Bangladesh? Is it discussed by people? Or in newspapers? Or by politicians.
Is its relevance and the urgency of the issue known?
My fear is that it is not.
October 1st, 2009 at 3:35 am
Thanks lex86
You are absolutely right.
From my understanding, resolving the issue of climate change was one of the most priorities of the AL led current government according to their election manifesto. Most of the print and electronic Media have been supportive to this cause and many reports are being published by them regarding this issue.
But this issue is now too complex to be resolved immediatly. 1. over population (appro. 158 + millions), 2. poor economy 3. corruption (most of the politicians and senior govt officials are involved, it has been alleged that some of them had misappropriated a large amount of international funds that were purported to be delivered to the victims of floods, storms hurricane etc in the past, 4. the law re protection and preservation of the Environment is not strict and/or too flexible so the perpetrators can easily get out of these legal loopholes 5. Not enough human resouces 6. inadequate govt. funds, 7. unavailable info or because of lack of transportation sometimes its too hard to reach to some vulnerable community who lives in the remote area, 8. lack of awareness among mass people
these are some common internal features in Bangladesh in terms of environmental issues.
At the same time the country is also being affected by some natural causes and due to the result of global warming. Still there seems to be no proper rules and regulaion for the operation of induestries and other factories especially in the cities.
the place (kaptai) where I live, there is a river called Karnaphuli river which at the end merged with the Bay of Bengal (south-eastern part of bangladesh). This river is a great source of agriculture, fishing, recreation, transportation, trades, and also popular for its scenic beauty and landscapes on the both sides of the river.
But once the beauty of kaptai had turned to be the worst disaster in our lives (Indigenous peoples in Chittagong Hill Tracts)when the then (1947-71) pakistani govt. had successfully built a hydroelectric dam (1962) on this river despite protest from some Indigenous peoples. This dam had caused devastating effect in our every aspects of lives. more than 54,000 acres of land (40% of cultivable land in CHT) had been inundated due to consequences of this ‘monster’ dam.
some 100,000 peoples had to flee from their ancestor lands and some took refuge in the border areas of India (Mizorum, Tripura)
and Myanmar and some became internally displaced people.
It is also notable that the whole palace of the Chief of the Chakma (one of the 13 indigenous communities in CHT) circle had gone under water. This indicates how ignorant was the then pakistani govt. and also some so called Polical leaders in Bangladesh who in the course of the building of the dam,
even did not feel a minimum sympathy for us -
although most of them were aware of the devastating effect of the dam.
very little or perhapes few influential persons in that time might have had received compensation but more than 95% of the victimes are still displaced and no compensation been given to them -neither from Pakistani govt nor from our very own Govt.
Now there is a papermill (once used to be the biggest papermill in south asia/asia)operating and most of the wastages of the mill are being discharged into the river contributing water pollution and causing many spieces of fishes to be extinct or death almost everyday. just 50 metres down the mill, there are more than 10/15 villages of the both sides of the river and many people use the water for their daiy necessities such as bathing, cooking, washing etc.
This has been reported so many times on the local and national newspapers but nothing has been done yet.
in this given case, it seems kind of foolish to rely on the words of the politicians to solve this crisis. Therefore, I suggest Cth take this matter siriously – not only the Bangladesh cae – also other countries such Maldives, India, Nigeria etc without any discrimination and giving appropriate weight to the problems not to the countries.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:08 am
“it seems kind of foolish to rely on the words of the politicians to solve this crisis”: here the word “politicians” was intended to mean some “so called local and national polical leaders in Bangladesh” who can be held reliable for this environmental problems.No other interpretation was intended.
October 1st, 2009 at 3:37 pm
liable not ‘reliable’. who can be held liable fo r this … sorry about this.. exam pressures:)
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
To me it is clear, as is highlighted by Mong’s comments above, that moving forward from its 60th Anniversary the Commonwealth has a duty to lead capacity building; in the transfer of governance (inc. robust environmental governance) as well as carbon literacy and management competencies; whilst acting as leading facilitating agent in the transfer of resources (inc. intellectual property and human) in-order to enable developing world member states to quickly develop the professional/ skills set bases needed for them to both develop and implement effective mitigation strategies and locally relevant climate adaptation responses.
From my experience working in the UK I believe that only through a deliberative cross sector partnership approach – that engenders ownership of the climate-energy agenda across governments, business, ngos and the wider community – can we effectively build the collaborative approach needed to achieve the future climate/ water/ food/ energy security we all desire.
Thus I feel that David should focus some of his efforts to use his remaining time at the helm of the FCO to encourage HM Government to support the Commonwealth Sec to work with member states to define and articulate a clear aspirational vision of a sustainably resilient low climate risk global economy, whilst encouraging funding members to resource the Commonwealth so it can support its developing world members through building local climate-energy governance capacity building, through the provision of mentors that can work with local communities to promote the uptake of low carbon technologies that have minimal adverse affects across the triple bottom-line (social-environment-economic).
October 4th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Climate Change is without doubt the greatest threat of the next millennium. While Miliband’s speeches are doing great in terms of networking, there needs to be a serious media effort to show the very real results of climate change.
Worst-case scenario, we’re looking at most coastal and island countries being partially or wholly underwater within twenty-to-thirty years. The monumental shift of population, (for, despite the horrendous amount of death that will ensue, many will escape)will be enough to drown the border officials of Central Asian, European and Far Eastern states. It is likely that borders will become impossible to police, and that a more concentrated population will quickly exhaust the agricultural capacity of the land to feed it. We may see roaming migrant populations across the world. I don’t think this is an exaggeration. It is a worst-case scenario, but perfectly possible in the circumstances.
If we in the Commonwealth do not act now to protect member states, by cutting carbon emissions immediately, improving flood defences and emergency rescue programs, and preparing for the worst by creating training opportunities for ordinary people to learn how to sustainably and independently survive in an emergency situation, we will be held responsible by future generations for ignoring the warning signs and consigning mankind to a new Dark Age.
This planet has passed its point of optimal human population, and we are having a severe enough effect on the environment as it is. Climate change is being taken far too trivially. At the end of the day, money is no object, and provided that the planet gains some kind of equilibrium again the cost is irrelevant. This is an occasion where the world genuinely needs saving.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Ben,
“define and articulate a clear aspirational vision of a sustainably resilient low climate risk global economy”
I think you have hit the nail on the head.
For the Commonwealth to be effective it needs a country like Britain to take an idea and run with it. Turn the Commonwealth into something useful.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:32 am
I echo Oba’s comments on carbon-cost. How much money is wasted on getting leaders together to talk about climate change when nothing will be done.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Finch: Britain does have to lead the way, but other member states need to follow. If India isn’t on board in a big way, then it will be hard for the Commonwealth to make too big an impact.
But an example must be set. The UK is just one of many countries who can take the lead. Canada has been a front-runner in the past – why not now?