Need Of A World Authority

By Fr. Tissa Balasuriya

The difficulties  encountered by countries in trying to come to an agreement  concerning the problems of climate warming  remind us that there is no world authority to decide on policies relating to even urgent needs.  Thus the nations were unable to reach a consensus regarding  reduction of emissions of carbon dioxide  in Kyoto and Copenhagen.

There is no international law and authority binding all the countries that can give an equitable solution to problems of global justice.  The 200 and more nation states claim to be sovereign bodies.  The ultimate authority that prevails among them is the power of arms. The United Nations Organisation, UNO, is impeded by the veto power  of the victors of World War II.

The world system has been unjust during 500 years after 1492, when Western European empires were set up. Climate change is now drawing  attention to further layers of human exploitation.

Three levels of global exploitation of the poor
A. Colonial exploitation of  land and resources
Not much attention is paid to the way this world system was set up viz. by the violence of the militarily superior Western powers against the weaker indigenous people.

The colonial powers exploited the colonised people, their lands and natural resources to build their wealth by developing agriculture and industries, imposing capitalistic trading practices. The unjust global distribution of land among population  affects very much the poor people in  highly populated areas, and calls for an equitable redistribution of land among people, and compensation to the exploited indigenous people, the Africans and Asians.

B. Subsequent exploitation in production and trade
The colonial empires thus have more arable land for cultivation, animal husbandry, and resources for economic development with extraction of a foreign debt by the colonial powers from poor exploited people.   Climate change is connected in its causes and effects with the use and exhaustion of non-renewable natural resources such as petroleum.

C.  Developed countries’ occupation of global carbon space
Scientists  note that the Western industrial powers have been polluting the space in the atmosphere while building up their wealth during the past centuries. “Developed nations already occupy 73%  of the carbon space, which is the space available for the emission of carbon-dioxide and other green houses without serious negative impact on the Earth.” ( cf. Nobel Laureate K.K.Pachauri and  K.M George SJ Threat To Human Survival,  Indian Currents: No  50, December 2009). India has only 2.5% of carbon space, compared to a due fair share of 17%. The USA with 5% of the world’s population occupies 29% of the carbon space. This situation poses serious questions of present and ongoing future global equity.

The questions of equity may be worsened by the impact of capital investments of the rich countries and multinational companies in the poor countries.

In the negotiations on climate change the poor countries were urged by the rich ones to reduce their emission of greenhouse gases, and thereby also reduce  their investment in economic development. On the contrary USA refused to reduce its emission of green house gases.

Regarding climate change, there is a clash of interests between the rich and the poor countries.  The rich countries have achieved a high standard of living by industrialisation using energy from carbon dioxide generating fossil fuels and other means that have polluted the world atmosphere during the last three centuries.

The poor countries like China and India are joining the industrialised economy to improve the standard of living of their billions. Due to their high population these countries generate the second and third highest amount of carbon emissions after the United States. They are asking for compensation from the rich developed countries for their carbon debt (ecological debt) to the underdeveloped world.  Limiting the carbon emissions of poor countries  has the result that they cannot develop according to modern standards as they are entitled to on a per head basis.  Thus India yet has 400 million people without electricity.

Hitherto the disputes of states concerning issues of territory, economy or ideology were often resolved by recourse to arms.  But the issues of climate change cannot be settled by conflict. The conditions of climate such as heat and cold have limits.  Beyond a certain point extreme heat or cold is harmful to human beings and nature. Hence people should not push the limits of climate warming or cold beyond the bearable limits. Its effect may extend to centuries.  The atmosphere belongs to all humans like the seas.

The requirements of the atmosphere must be respected for the common good of all. They indicate the norms of the climate ethic that all people must respect.  Equity in relationships concerning climate must provide each person  the conditions for human life.

There is a clash of interests between the life style of the affluent and the poor everywhere in their impact on climate change.  Thus the private motor car causes much of the  pollution of the air.  The poor who travel by bus, by cycle, by tram, contribute relatively less to warming of the Earth, but suffer from it.

Climate change affects life of plants and animals, and thus of agriculture and food production. Farmers suffer much when crops fail and they cannot feed the family despite hard work. Climate change affects the poor, especially women and children, due to difficulty to find basic survival needs like water and food.

The urgent problems of climate change are complex and have serious repercussions:  They are not limited to a given area of land or to a few nation states.  Climate change is no respecter of the artificial boundaries of nation states. Global warming has been brought about by actions of many countries over centuries, especially since the industrial revolution.

With  the warming of the climate in the future there will be more need for disaster management. Cyclones, drought, floods and melting of glaciers of snow capped mountains require a world authority to manage  the earth, seas, air, environment, and natural resources. It must ensure the essentials for right to life for all persons. These problems cannot be solved by nation states alone.

Urgent problems need a global authority

Maintaining a  desirable temperature on Earth, or preventing  undesirable effects such as the melting of the glaciers of the Himalayas or the flooding of rivers call  for serious  global action.

There are policies that can lead to the reduction of the warming of the climate.  Such actions as use of solar power to generate energy and electricity can benefit  humanity, on the contrary some actions such as deforestation can impact adversely a whole continent like South America.

Questions of  climate change cannot be resolved by free enterprise capitalistic competition that harms the poor, or inter-state violence that kill millions.  Is not part of the cause of the US “War on Terror” to obtain control over the oil reserves and oil paths of Iraq and Afghanistan? The US and allies seem to want to ensure long term availability of oil as it is essential for their economy and hegemonic military power.

The Copenhagen Accord

The United States, China and India were reluctant to participate in the Kyoto Protocol and reduce their carbon emissions as agreed to by most of the nations. There was  thus a virtual deadlock at the Copenhagen conference in early December 2009.  The situation was  made more hopeful by the option of US President Barrack Obama seeking a solution through personal diplomacy with some leaders of the more highly populated developing  countries.  Obama proposed a new position of the rich nations contributing to a global fund of US $ 200 billions by 2020 to subsidise the poor countries in their effort to reduce carbon emissions by a certain minimum and also help in their economic development. On the final night at Copenhagen, he announced this Accord among the leaders of US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Though several countries were critical of  the US  initiative, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the COP 15 president favoured it as a positive  beginning, preventing a total failure of the conference. Much remains to be done to obtain the US Senate approval and the participation of the other countries in the spirit and letter of this Accord. The European Union was prepared to contribute to the fund to help the poor developing countries.