Bali: GSR and CSR

Saturday, 15 December 2007

From the Kyoto Protocol of 1990 to the Bali Conference of 2007, greenhouse gas emissions have risen along with the rhetoric of corporate social responsibility and "governments social and environmental responsibility (GSR). Almost every serious company or government has a platform or mission statement claiming that they are doing their part in fighting climate change. The question is whether government commitments at the Bali Climate Change Conference can actually make a difference in the actions of businesses and individuals? Can we as developed country citizens recognize the truth of the statement: The industrialized nations, as the main causers of climate change, are in the responsibility to support such processes (Peter Hoeppe's, head of the Geo-Risk research department at Munich RE).

What role can citizens and activists play when faced with global challenges?

How can we deal with the disparities of income and emissions between the "developed" and "developing" world?

The effects on developing countries from climate change will be terrible: Sven Harmeling, senior advisor for climate and development at Germanwatch and author of the study: "The most affected Countries in 2006 were the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Korea and the host of the ongoing climate summit, Indonesia. In both the Philippines and in Indonesia there were almost 1300 deaths and damages ranging in the billions due to storms and floods. While the absolute numbers are far lower than those in the US or China, they alone are not sufficient to judge the extent to which a country was affected, according to Harmeling. "That's why Germanwatch's Climate Risk Index also includes relative indicators. In Korea there were four times as many deaths per 100.000 inhabitants due to weather extremes than there were in Indonesia", Harmeling explains. In average over the last 10 years, Honduras, Nicaragua and Bangladesh have experienced the greatest impacts.

How about a business perspective?

Peter Hoeppe, head of the Geo-Risk research department of Munich Reinsurance, on whose world renowned weather extremes [Germanwatch's Climate Risk] Index is based: "The events of one year do not allow the direct conclusion of a causal relation with climate change. However since 1980 the incidence of natural disasters through wind storms has doubled, while the frequency of floods and other extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts has even quadrupled." Hoeppe continues: "This clearly shows an increasing danger. The frequency of geophysical catastrophes on the other hand has only risen by a factor of 1.5. While this increase is likely to be due to socio economic factors, the far stronger rise in weather related catastrophes is shown with increasing certainty to be to a good part due to climate change", Peter Hoeppe explains. "Especially countries that have been hit hard by weather extremes in the past should take this as a prompt to pay greater attention to preventing such dangers", Hoeppe advises and adds: "The industrialized nations, as the main causers of climate change, are in the responsibility to support such processes."