Daily Times

Climate change is impacting the world around us, leading to extreme weather conditions. There are many theories doing the rounds on what causes climate change. A lot of focus has been on carbon emissions and their leading to global warming, causing climate change. There, however, are other theories as well,the most common being solar output and orbital variations. A look into these causes and it seems all of them have made some contribution to climate change.In recent years, the impact of orbital variations on climate change has come to the fore as a major cause of climate change, taking some emphasis away from manmade causes of like carbon emissions.
However, whether carbon emissions and other pollutants cause climate change or not, one thing is for sure: carbon emissions and other pollutants have led to environmental degradation, in turn leading to serious hazards to the lives of humans, animals and plants on earth. How to tackle emissions is not merely an environmental or social issue but has become a serious political and economic issue of our times. Pressure is put on countries like China and India to curb their emissions. On the other hand, emerging economies like these two countries contend that developed economies throughout the Industrial Revolution burnt fossil fuels, particularly coal, to develop their economies and now they too want to use emissions as a tool to check the development of their own emerging economies. This has stalled most of the action on climate change over the decades.
Rationally speaking, the fair deal would be one where developed economies are made to pay for their excesses over the past two centuries. This was the essence of the Kyoto Protocol, which, so far, has failed to make its desired impact. A totally fair benchmark would be to tabulate the total emissions of each country since the Industrial Revolution and calculate the excesses based on a population-based quota over the two centuries. Based on this, the quota should be defined for the next 50 years and any country that exceeds its quota should pay for emission controls globally. However, this formula does have practical limitationsbecause most developed nations will not accept it. This is evident from Japan, Canada and Russia’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011 and the US’s reluctance to ratify it.
But the issue of emissions is real. And just when the difference is over who should pay for controlling emissions, all sides agree that emissions is a real issue that needs to be tackled. This understanding can serve as a good starting point to find a solution to the problem. In recent months, the US has shown its willingness to show leadership in the fight against emissions. This is highlighted by the US-China deal in whichthe US and EU have agreed to meet reduction targets while letting China only focus on capping its emissions by 2030. This implies developed countries finding a way to take enhanced responsibility for carbon emissions because of their past excesses. The agreement is also significant because the US, EU and China combined amount for more than 50 percent of total global emissions.
However, such political agreement is only one side of the solution. The other side, which offers a huge opportunity for emerging economies, is technological innovation that limits greenhouse gases. Innovation in renewable technologies to make them cost effective and thus an economically viable alternative to fossil fuel, innovation in mechanical devices to improve fuel efficiency, innovation in more environment friendly farming methods and innovation in developing cost effective recycling technologies to make use of organic and inorganic waste are all multi-trillion dollar opportunities waiting for innovators. When innovation and research become location agnostic, emerging economies have an almost equal chance to capitalise on these opportunities. It will be a prudent judgment call for emerging economies and the businessmen in these economies to invest in those innovative ventures. They will be responsible investments but, on top of that, they will be rewarding investments going forward.
If one has to pinpoint one factor that allowedthe west to dominate the rest for over two centuries, it was the invention of the steam engine. With the threat of extinction looming over our heads, the health hazards of fossil fuels and technological advances, there is an opportunity for another steam engine moment, this time in way more eco-friendly, life-friendly domains. Making countries pay for past excesses is one element of it but the broader focus should be on taking control of the future. This is humanity’s opportunity and the emerging market’s opportunity to take.

The author can be reached on twitter at @aalimalik