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fter the relative failure of last year’s UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, heads of state will be given another chance to deliver in Mexico this November. According to the Bali Road Map of 2007, governments had agreed to put in place a global agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol by the end of last year, allowing countries time to integrate the treaty into their own nation- al initiatives. It didn’t happen and now time is running out. In theo- ry, the Cancun summit is the last opportunity. Yvo de Boer, the out- going executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), doesn’t think a global agreement will be reached in Cancun, rather the implementation architecture ready for the next treaty.
But the absence of action at a global level has not deterred gov- ernments from taking their responsibilities seriously at a national level. Heads of state know that in the future, when carbon is king, emissions reduction will be critical – and the work must start now. The industrialised world is ahead of the game: in Europe, emissions trading is in full swing (with a federal system imminent in the US), commercial and domestic energy efficiency is improving, the gener- ation and use of renewable energy is ramping up, low-impact build- ings are on the rise, and standards and codes of best environmental practice are constantly being developed to encourage low-carbon activity.
But what is happening in emerging countries, like India and China? Those lacking ambition in the developed world commonly suggest that action is pointless if the likes of China are building hun- dreds of fossil-fuel fired power plants every month, adopting a ‘What’s the point?’ shrug of the shoulders. The truth is, economies in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries have some catching up to do – and any new global carbon reduction agreement will be more lenient on these nations. The level of pollution in rivers, watercourses and the air in some of the BRIC regions is still totally unacceptable; carbon emissions could easily get out of hand if some- thing isn’t done to regulate the number of coal-and gas-powered energy plants in existence, or at least insist on carbon capture and storage technology; human rights and employment standards are still nowhere near where they need to be; illegal logging is commonplace;
and environmental standards are a distant reality. But that doesn’t mean that low-carbon ambitions are absent from government strate- gies in BRIC countries – or from those that live or work there.
Brazil Brazil’s perspective on sustainable futures is “inextricably linked to socio-environmental issues”, according to the Brazilian Green Building Council. Just like in many parts of the world, there isn’t yet a strong business case for sustainable development, but the concept is gaining momentum, at least in the real estate industry. Elsa Monteiro, head of sustainability at one of Brazil’s largest shopping centre developers, Sonae Sierra, thinks that environmental protection in Brazil is a lot more stringent than in many parts of the world. “As shopping centre developers, we were obliged to perform environ- mental impact assessments here in Brazil before it became mandato- ry in European countries,” she says. There is also plenty of regula- tion around wastewater, water quality and noise pollution, although “there isn’t much enforcement”, admits Monteiro. Poverty and crime still dominate attention at national levels, but sustainability is gaining ground, especially at a regional and city level. “In some states, poverty and class divide is exacerbated and there are differences in terms of environmental management, such as the avail- ability of recycling facilities,” says Monteiro. “And in some locations it is difficult for us to find local suppliers who can meet our environ- mental standards – the market for some of the services we want has- n’t yet been developed. But there are also some cities that do have a very strong local sustainability agenda. In Curitiba, for example, local authorities are very aware of sustainable development issues and seek to attract socially responsible investment by implementing sustainability policies.”
Russia
Meanwhile in Russia, President Medvedev is keen to mark his reign by introducing a raft of climate change policies. Days before he was due to attend the COP15 meeting last December, he approved the Climate Doctrine, a strategy designed to provide an overview of the Russian Federation’s principles and goals for climate change mitiga-
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