Change before you adapt

The fight against climate change is not just about adaptation. It is about change and how we can do more with less. The fight against climate change is not against development but it is for development that is ecologically sensitive. Amid the challenges this phenomenon brings about, there are opportunities to be realised. We should not, for one minute, think that we should no longer travel or that we should learn to do away with the comfort of our homes.

Climate change is not about people restricting their diets to fruit and vegetables to minimise manure contribution to greenhouse gases. Climate change is about sustainable development. It is about highly efficient end-use technologies for buildings, industry, and energy generation and distribution.

Climate change presents us with a reality that humanity has not been faced with ever before. Developed countries have to find ways of improving existing technologies to attain higher efficiencies. Developing countries, on the other hand, need to find ways of developing without affecting the climate as their developed neighbours are doing. The south must develop more efficiently than the north has done since the industrial revolution.

Today developed countries consume over 10,000 kilowatts/hour per capita while developing countries consume just over 1,000 kilowatts/hour per capita. However, 1.6 billion people around the world still have no access to electricity. With a business-as-usual scenario, and given current population trends, the number of people without access to electricity will decline by only 12 per cent by 2030, while developed countries continue to consume more and more energy.

Further discrepancies occur between the US, with approximately 800 drivers for every 1,000 persons, and China, with just 15 drivers for every 1,000 persons. Extra efforts are needed. The world should not seek to adapt with this reality but work towards minimising these gaps. Financial and technology transfer to finance technologies and avoid duplication of technological inefficiencies are needed to minimise the gaps between the developed and the developing worlds.

There need be no more Stern or IPCC reports to convince the world that the predictions of science of recent decades are already being felt. Adapting to this reality will continue to affect climate change. We need to reverse this trend by promoting growth that respects the environment. Simply adapting and remaining idle will exacerbate the risks and dangers with each passing day.

Each and every individual must commit to put their concern for the environment at the heart of each decision and choice they make, each in their own way.

Minimising waste, recycling, composting, eating seasonal and local produce, cycling or walking, combining errands, reducing the use of water and conserving energy are a few of the many things each individual can do to help reverse climate change.

Considering that the human species is accountable for 0.5 per cent of all the existing biomass on earth and yet, to survive, it utilises 40 per cent of available resources implies that the human species is, by far, the most inefficient on earth. To reverse this trend, governments must commit to climate change by making choices for a new kind of growth, an environmentally acceptable growth. Entrepreneurs must improve existing technologies for more efficient use of energy, water and natural resources. Economists must factor in environmental costs resulting from a carbon economy in their own economic systems. Individuals must aspire to a standard of living that is equitable and sustainable.

If we do not manage to change, adapting to the economic impact of rising temperatures will increase the cost of development. Mankind should protect against climate change by integrating this fight into mainstream national planning. The implementation of adaptation strategies will disadvantage developing countries, including Malta, even further.

We should not just adapt, we should accustom ourselves to sustainable patterns of production and consumption. A new form of thinking is needed about how communities should develop. A profound change in our individual and collective behaviour, as consumers and producers, is needed.

Dr Ciantar is director for environmental policy and initiatives at the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment.