After the failure of the Copenhagen Summit, which accentuated differences between industrialized countries and developing countries, Petersberg Climatic Dialog was finally opened and summoned by Mexico and Germany. The aim was to enhance confidence ground in conversations, and it seems to have been achieved. The presence of the Mexican president Felipe Calderón and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, apart from ministerial delegations of 45 countries, have given a very strong initiative to the discussion that has allowed bringing opinions over.
For three days, delegations from all over the world debate in groups to prepare the way towards the following Summit that will take place in Cancun at the end of the current year. Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, secretary of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, explains that the central point of this meeting is to give a political support to the negotiations about climate.
The aim of Copenhagen was to reach a binding agreement that replaced the agreement of Kyoto that expires in 2012. However, the failure of this summit was not due to a specific country but lack of communication between all parties. Fortunately, it is never late, and politicians always have the possibility of learning from past mistakes to revert the situation. Meanwhile, the current strategy that Mexico has adopted is to resume the communication cautiously by advancing the negotiations to get to Cancun without repeating mistakes. The dialog will be taken again to get agreements that could be useful to all. to assure not returning with the empty hands; the negotiations had started months before.
The ultimate goal of this debate is that the average temperature of the planet does not exceed two-centigrade degrees of increase. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of an insecurity situation as regards the survival of the humankind if we exceed this margin. To do this, it is essential to change the current model of development in an equitable way. Nevertheless, this slogan creates a conflict between the block of industrialized countries and developing countries given their differences in production and socioeconomic conditions. In fact, neither the United States nor China, primarily responsible for the global emission of gases greenhouse effect, has yielded under the international community pressure. It is important to integrate these countries into a document that may have validity and agreement within the conference to settle guidelines that meet the characteristics of each region and, at the same time, point towards common goals.
Cancun’s Summit suggests to this end a negotiating table in which not only the summit tries to demand industrialized countries but also to look for strategies that could spread on a worldwide scale through the transfer of technology and financing for a sustainable development. A series of successful cases will be mentioned that are already being put to practise in some regions to generalize them under a scheme of support of industrialized countries to developing countries. These schemes of cooperation point to an adjustment to the climate change through the protection of cities, harbours, ecological reservations and sources of fresh water. This includes the reduction of emissions that affect the greenhouse effect and the conservation of forests and rain forests.
This time, Mexico assumes not only a position as host of the Summit, but also as a developing country that will have to make significant concessions to protect the climate. Mexico is a highly vulnerable region to the climate change since it suffers problems like floods, droughts and torrential rains that have caused much destruction in the country. However, as a country, is only responsible for two per cent of the gas emission greenhouse effect of the world. Goals have appeared to diminish them in short and long term.
In this respect, the rapprochement with the European country, demonstrates without doubts Mexico’s interest to improve the situation since Germany is considered the country that almost takes the world leadership in reduction of emission. It is a clear country about his definitions, which has showed a great political will and efficiency in the results. It hopes that the alliance Mexico - Germany generates an important agreement and, especially, a driving force to keep walking towards effective results that are perceived in the environment.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comment form
