Climate Change Funding

For long we’ve been hearing about global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, environmental pollution and the subsequent climatic hazards that they cause. But we’ve taken very less action towards checking this. It’s been almost half a decade now that the subject of environmental deterioration has shifted from the laboratories of scientists and the living rooms of intellectuals to the common man. Yes, now since people are able to see, feel and realize the effects of climate change, they have become responsive and the government has decided to take funds from them to fight the environmental change which if left unchecked will lead to catastrophic consequences.

According to Reuters, at a recently held G20 meeting, global heads were debating on how the economically well off countries should aid the poorer ones in fighting the climate change. Well, I think even you and I can do some thinking on this and make the job of the ministers a bit easy with sensible answers which you can post in the comment box below. For now let us see what this climate change funding is and how it works.

Essentially the climate change project has come up with a number of alternatives to reduce or nullify the emission carbon dioxide and other polluting gases into the atmosphere in the developing countries. Carbon dioxide emission is one of the major causal factors of global warming as it traps atmospheric heat causing global warming.

The governments and the rich of the developed countries are being coaxed to fund high quality carbon dioxide elimination schemes in the developing countries because these schemes are costly and the developing countries do not have enough finances to fund for themselves. Also, in developing countries where satisfaction of basic life necessities is a prime issue of concern, can you expect combating climatic change to get high priority? These countries are still largely engulfed in poverty and lack of education though they’ve made considerable progress. A significant portion of the masses don’t even know that climatic changes are occurring and these changes are harmful.

You might say what about some cheap alternatives to combat the problem. All those have been tried and they failed. The entire project is expected to cost 100 billion Euros, a fifth of which is going to be funded by the rich and the government of developed countries. Profit driven investments from the private sector are also being considered over non- profit driven companies.

The money will go directly to the developing countries or it might go via the UN for the purpose of funding the environmental issue. The funds might also be used in crediting companies that have succeeded in lowering the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere provided they can prove it.

You might feel that when private investors can run the show, why is government involvement necessary. The reason is very simple. The effects of climatic control are too widespread to be experienced or managed by private investors alone. When the plan is so good, where does the problem lie now? The problem is that though the EU has taken a firm stand on its contribution towards combating climate change, the US and Japan though convinced about the project, don’t seem to have come out with a clear idea on how much they would contribute. Understandably in the case of US, the economic scarcity caused by the recession maybe proving to be a hurdle in their extending a helping hand wholeheartedly.

In any case, my advice to rich countries who are sulking for being made to pay for the developing countries is to cheer up as they are contributing for a major cause of concern of the present times and effects of the climatic rectification will be felt by many.