From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM CLIMATE CHANGEScientists have been aware of the threats posed by climate changefor decades, but the international apparatus for addressing the problemis more recent and is still largely incomplete. Beyond the scatteredinitiatives of some national governments, what currently exists is anagreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (known as‘mitigation’) by some wealthy nations, carbon trading schemes toassist in that task, and several small international funds set up to assessand help pay for the additional costs of coping with climate change(known as ‘adaptation’) in developing countries.These responses, organised under the 1992 UN FrameworkConvention on Climate Change and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol, are as yetentirely inadequate relative to the ultimate objective of theConvention: to stabilise the global climate within a timeframe thatallows ecosystems to adapt naturally, ensures food production is notthreatened, and enables sustainable development to take place. 215Scientists estimate that we have less than ten years to turn thingsaround.WHAT’S FAIR: STOP HARMING, START HELPINGMeeting this challenge will be a Herculean task, on the scale of globalwartime mobilisation. Because the world economy is entirely dependentupon the fossil fuels that are the worst culprits in causing global greenhousegas emissions, the need to tackle these emissions has far-reachingimplications. Few economic sectors will be untouched, and the political,managerial, and organisational challenges of driving the rapid changesneeded are massive. Further, the spillover effects of both impacts of,and responses to, growing emissions will affect all other aspects of theinternational system, including regimes governing trade and financialflows, aid and humanitarian relief, and conflict and security.However, the challenge for the international climate regime is notjust to ensure that global emissions of greenhouse gases are cut radicallyand fast: this must be done in a way that redresses the deep injusticesthat lie at the heart of climate change. Poor people least responsible forclimate change are now most at risk from its impacts (see Part 4).Climate change will force developing countries not only to prepare forunprecedented natural disasters and adapt agriculture to significantlydrier or wetter conditions (or both), but to build modern economies407