Hey folks,
Let’s talk about the great market ‘meltdown’. Yes, some of the richest nations in the world are now tottering on the brink of bankruptcy and thousands of people are watching their hard earned money vanish into thin air. Hard times ahead, predict market pundits. At a time like this, there is nothing strange about witnessing the heads of state ‘melting’, too, in sheer fright. On public platforms. But it is still rather difficult to stomach the scene when they dissolve into sheer cowardice. More specifically ‘climate cowardice’.
It happened in Brussels recently, where the European Union Council met to finalise its carbon dioxide blueprint, among other things. As per the deal that the leaders had worked out 18 months ago, the EU countries would make major cuts in CO2 emissions by 2020, and most importantly, would pledge to increase their energy efficiency by 20 per cent within that time. But the Brussels Summit saw pandemonium… European style. The distinguished statesmen rowed bitterly, as a group of ‘rebels’ claimed the economies had been hit too hard to make room for climate compromises. In short, the nations were reneging.
I know little about the affairs of the state, so I have some questions. Doesn’t higher energy efficiency mean less energy use, hence cuts in the humungous energy bills? Isn’t healing environment the first step towards healing economies? Hey, is anybody listening...???
– Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail:
panditji@cseindia.org
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