IPN to Participate In Montreal COP-11 Climate Meeting: 'Global Climate Control Not Cost Effective– Will Undermine Sustainable Development'

My IPN Press release titled IPN to Participate In Montreal COP-11 Climate Meeting: 'Global Climate Control Not Cost Effective– Will Undermine Sustainable Development' was published on International Policy Network on December 1 2006

London, 1 December: Environment ministers from around the world will gather in Montreal, Quebec, next week at the COP-11 climate change meeting.

International Policy Network will send four individuals to Montreal to participate in COP-11 from 5 to 9 December:

• Kendra Okonski, Environment Programme director of IPN
• Oliver Hartwich, Research Fellow, IPN
• Barun Mitra, director of the Liberty Institute in New Delhi, India
• Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Costa Rican- based policy analyst and IPN Research Fellow.

These individuals share the view that attempting to control the climate through mandatory restrictions on carbon emissions, through the Kyoto Protocol or similar measures, would be harmful and counterproductive for both wealthy and poor countries.

Ms Okonski explained, “Democratically deficient organizations such as NGOs, the EU and the United Nations continue to claim that we must have climate control through the Kyoto Protocol or ‘a son of Kyoto’. But as EU countries have already experienced, attempts at climate control increase the price of energy, which harms the poor and vulnerable, and reduces economic growth. Climate control causes more harm than good.”

Barun Mitra concurred: “Poor countries, such as my native India, are being pressured by unaccountable bureaucrats and green organisations to sign up to ‘climate control’. But India, China and other poor countries are ill-advised to sign up to emission restrictions through the Kyoto Protocol, or any other agreement.”

Mitra explained: “Restricting greenhouse gas emissions in poor countries would not save lives. Instead, it would cause economic stagnation, which would perpetuate poverty and exacerbate current environmental problems in poor countries. For the benefit of people and the environment, poor countries must urgently develop their economies, which will require consuming more – not less -- energy. “

Ms Okonski concluded: “Adaptation is a better policy to address climate change. It would deliver short- and medium- term benefits – especially for the poor -- while reducing our vulnerability to climate-sensitive problems in the future.”