04/05/11

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Is Kyoto Protocol A Solution To Global Warming


Climate change, like global warming is a burning issue nowadays. Global warming is an increase in the earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperature due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution. Greenhouse gases like chlorofluorocarbons, carbon dioxide and methane absorb heat from the sun and increase the temperature of the earth. Scientists term global warming a serious issue because it can create problems for mankind in the future.
Global warming affects all kinds of species on the earth. Scientists believe that global warming is caused by many anthropogenic factors such as deforestation, emission of greenhouse gases by industries, burning of fuels etc. This emerging threat compelled the international community and the UN to adopt new rules to protect the earth. One of the rules is Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is an international system of rules which were passed by the UN in 1997 to minimize the global warming by reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases. After many years, this pact came into effect on 16 February 2005.The Kyoto Protocol was signed by 156 countries categorized as Annex 1(developed countries) and Non- Annex 1 (developing countries) parties. The core objective of this pact lies in Article 3 of Kyoto protocol. Article 3 says that every member country should reduce the emission of overall greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent below the 1990 level, in the first commitment period i.e. 2008-2012.    (UNFCCC)
There are three mechanisms to implement Kyoto protocol: (A) Trade in permits to emit greenhouse gases. (B) Joint implementation mechanism. (C) Clean development mechanism. This paper will particularly discuss the negative effects of Clean Development Mechanism projects on developing countries such as India, Venezuela and North America as spurious.
“The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries (called Annex B countries) with a greenhouse reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gases emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive greenhouse gas emission reductions in their own countries”. (Envis Newsletters)
The Kyoto protocol is ineffective and insufficient .Many projects working under the CDM do not fulfill the commitment of reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases, and undermine the credibility of Kyoto Treaty by endangering life in many developing countries.
The Kyoto protocol is not sufficient and it is not possible to reduce global warming to a satisfactory level through this pact. Most scientists believe that we need a 50% reduction of current levels of greenhouse gases by 2050 to stabilize world climate. According to Marco, only 5.2% reduction of greenhouse gases would compound to an 8% reduction by the end of this century, i.e., it allows a 92% increase. So at this rate we would not be able to achieve our target and at the end of century we would still be emitting 92 % of greenhouse gases. (UNFCCC).If the emission of greenhouse gases is greater than their reduction then the Kyoto protocol is futile. Thus, we need some other regulations which can produce effective results in the future.
             The Kyoto Treaty does not explain its objectives clearly. There is no proper mechanism to implement this so that the objectives regarding the Kyoto Protocol can be fully achieved. As the first paragraph of article 3 summarizes, “the parties included in Annex 1 (developed countries) shall individually or jointly, reduce their overall emission of greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 level in the commitment period 2008 to 2012” (Grubb et al. 116). On the other side, Tom Clark of channel 4 news (UK) conducted a survey in India and found that most of the projects working under CDM do not reduce carbon emission. For example, Shri Bajran RE project working under CDM is not environment friendly and it is also not following the rules regarding emission of the greenhouse gases. The money from these projects is supposed to be spent on cleaning environment but this does not happen. Most of the developed countries for their cheap investment in projects in the developing countries do not care about pollution.  The huge investment in India under the banner of CDM has no use if it is not decreasing the greenhouse gases.UK is investing billions of pounds in numerous Indian projects that only increase pollution. A leading expert in global carbon trading Dr. Mecenova in an interview with channel 4 news (UK) said that “a closer look at the CDM projects in India revealed that the projects do not fulfill their additionality (additional cut in carbon emission) requirement”. (Clean Development in India)
  The clean development mechanism is not effective and fruitful. It has other side effects as well. The promotion of monoculture plantation (cultivation of single crop in a large area) under the CDM creates many social and financial problems. The large scale monoculture plantations are not suitable for environment because these monoculture trees decrease the water at basin level, cause acidification, and nutrition depletion. The local population suffers a lot from this implantation. For example in the Portuguesa state of Venezuela, Smurfitt Cartons is dispossessing local peasants of their lands and destroying and replacing riverine forests with eucalyptus, pines and gmelina monocrops. Oil palm plantation companies in Sumatra and Indonesia are occupying local peoples’ lands, which has resulted in civil unrest. Similar situations involving either eucalyptus and/or oil palm plantation are also frequent in Sarawak, Malaysia, where indigenous peoples are being dispossessed of their traditional lands to make way to plantations and are fighting back to defend the lands. (World Rainforest Movement)
Developed countries are the leading emitters of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol does nothing in pursuing developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emission. On the contrary it further facilitates them economically under CDM. The CDM prevents developed countries from reducing greenhouse gases in the following way. For example the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined by the Kyoto Protocol in Article 12 as a form of cooperation between both groups (developing and developed countries), provides a way by which North American countries will be able to comply with their commitments, simply through the establishment of extensive tree monocrops in the South America. According to World Rainforest Movement (WRM) “when a public or private entity of an Annex I (developed countries) invests in a plantation project in the South (developing countries), it is the investing country that will receive emission reduction certification for the project. As a matter of fact this provision, which goes together with the net approach, means that industrialized countries are freed of their responsibility to cut their carbon emissions in a significant way, while the South (developing countries) will offer their territory to projects aimed at capturing them, which will bring negative environmental consequences with them, as tree monocrops do” (WRM). So it is not right that the countries who are historically responsible for global warming would now receive assistance from poor countries.
Rapid growth and industrialization has brought us to a point where our energy needs are increasing day by day. Coal and fossil fuels are the largest sources that fulfill our energy demands but at the cost of greenhouse gases. To reduce the greenhouse gases we should find alternate sources of energy such as wind energy, solar energy, bio energy etc that are environment friendly.
                To sum up, developing countries contain 75% of the world’s population, and they emit greenhouse gases. Most of the projects running under the label of CDM cause pollution in developing countries. In fact, it does not matter from which place the pollution comes from; it is added to the atmosphere. Therefore, a better mechanism is needed so that solutions proposed for problems don’t become problem.



Need of Military Operation In South Waziristan Agency


August 1, 2009.Attack on army check post, three security personals injured.
August 1, 2009.Attack on army convoy in North Waziristan Agency, two soldiers died.
August 3, 2009. Suicide bomber arrested in Dera Ismail Khan.
August 15, 2009 Suicide attack at a check post in Swat, five killed. August 15, 2009. Two girls
Schools destroyed by militants.
August 17, 2009 Pickup blown up in a remote control bomb blast, seven civilians died on the spot.
August 18, 2009. Suicide attack on check post in Miranshah, seven died.
August 21, 2009.Janikhail Fort attacked by militants, 3 security personals injured.
August 26, 2009.Attack on army convoy in South Waziristan, 4 soldiers died including major.
August 27, 2009.Suicide attack in tehsildar’s office at Torkham in Khyber Agency, 18 khasadars
Died .
August 30, 2009.Suicide attack in Mingora kills 16 community policemen.
All these news are the front page headlines of Daily Mashriq of August 2009.One can easily count that in a single month of August 2009, there were three attacks on army, four suicide attacks on law enforcement authorities, one remote control blast, burning of two schools. These incidents happened in only in N.W.F.P.
These are the efforts which Taliban are doing to bring Islamic Revolution in Pakistan. Taliban continued these destructive activities since 2002 when Neik Muhammad provided asylum to foreign militants who left Afghanistan because of control of America on Afghanistan. They reorganized themselves under command of Neik Muhammad and started attacks on U.S forces and her allies including Pakistan. These deeds nothing but defamed Pakistan as a terrorist country. Taliban have not a single good deed on their account ,but destruction of bridges, roads, schools, governmental buildings, remote control bomb blasts, suicide attacks, slaughtering of innocent people and many more such brutal deeds.

Now here a question arises, Should we give free hand to Taliban that whatever they want? Are they allowed to do all brutality because they are doing all these for bringing Islamic revolution In Pakistan? The answer is quite clear that it is not the right path to choose for any group to attain its purposes because whenever any group tried to take weapons for its purposes failed in achieving its targets.
All uncertainty is created by Taliban in Pakistan. While they do cross border movements and they attack U.S forces and then come back to Pakistan for hidings and again plan for next attacks then U.S will ultimately attack those areas where there hideouts are located. To be honest U.S favored us giving the option to remove foreigners from the land of Pakistan, but when they were not satisfied by the steps taken by Pakistan against militants they started drone attacks where foreign militants were pointed out by intelligence reports. If a political leader of my country criticizes America for Drone attacks that these attacks are against of our national integrity and sovereignty, I want to ask him that what our people are doing while they go to Afghanistan and attack U.S forces. Are our tribesmen not challenging the integrity and sovereignty of America? Surely they are challenging it though we may not consider it as challenging but they surely consider it as such.
For information to  those who want dialogues with Taliban should be aware of the fact that before Operation Rah-e-Nijat three operations were ended in peace deals between Pakistan Army and Taliban. Despite of acting on these peace accords Taliban didn’t fulfilled the requirements of these pacts in which it was clearly stated that peace accords will be only applicable if local Taliban expel the foreigner militants from South Waziristan. But Taliban strengthened theirselves in the time of peace after these accords were signed. And again when they got ammunition and funds from foreign elements they over ruled these pacts.
If  Taliban claim that they are the real ones who feel sympathies for local people or for the people of Pakistan, let me ask them have they ever provided a single bottle of water or a piece of bread to any one of IDP’s ,the answer is absolutely negative. My political leaders make noise in assembly about Waziristan operation that it is totally against human rights I want to ask them what Taliban do is not human rights violation. If you people consider America as your enemy and every time you release a statement that America want to attack Pakistan, then is it not a folly that we are saving almost 5000 militants from America and we don’t care about 160 million people of Pakistan if America attacks Pakistan due to these militants present in Pakistan. I am not terrorizing anyone by giving such arguments, but the truth is that Pakistan’s maximum capability to fight with America is only of seven days. So is this wise to provide shelter to those militants or to save your own public.
Belonging to South Waziristan, I know, up to which level Taliban have knowledge of Islam. The members of Shuraa who also solve disputes of local tribesmen will favour you if you give them some crates of fruits and some packs of sweets or invite them to dinner because we ourselves won a tribal case just by bribing the members of Shuraa and all of them favored our family and we won that case against the whole village, this is the Taqwa standard (fear of Allah) of these muftis. An example to show that Taliban are working on foreign agenda is that last summer I went to South Waziristan, there I asked a militant commander that according to news reports you people get  financial aid and weapons from India, Israel and Russia. His answer was surprisingly shocking when he said that it is legal in Islam to get aid from non-Muslims(India, Israel, Russia) against those Muslims who support non-Muslims against second Muslim country. One of my friends, Zohaib Dawar of North Waziristan told me that he met a person who belonged to Russia and nowadays he embraced Islam and doing Jihad against Pakistan Army. This shows that different countries which want to destabilize Pakistan has sent their secret agents in disguise of Taliban. Another reason in favor of Waziristan operation is that all learned scholars never ever supported militancy in Pakistan. Moulana Hassan Jan and Moulana Sarfaraz Naeemi not only condemned suicide attacks but also declared suicide attacks as nonhuman behavior and for the same reason they were killed by target killing and suicide attack  respectively. They were targeted by men of Baitullah Mehsud, who died in a drone attack on 5th August2009, who just studied religious education till fifth grade. It is quite clear to every Pakistani that Taliban are not fighting for Islam nor is their aim to bring Islamic revolution in Pakistan. In order to bring peace, to bring back the hustle and bustle to lives of all Pakistani nation, to bring happiness to those who lost their beloved ones in suicide attacks, bomb blasts, to make our country safer from foreign conspiracies against us and our nuclear programme it is necessary to do full fledge operation in South Waziristan and it should continue till last militant is there on the soil of South Waziristan. It is the time when we all should stand unite against militancy and to uproot this evil from the base. Writing in favor of Waziristan operation is a difficult job for me because it is my dear homeland and it is burning in fire of bullets and bombs, it is trembling from bombardment of fighter jets but Taliban left the government with no other option because they are spreading like cancer in our society and country. To save other parts from being infected it is necessary to do operation of that part which has got tumor.