Open Letter to the Editor - The Rich Must Face Their Personal Carbon Responsibility

Document begins: ocp O I E S Open Letter to the Editor Centre for Science and Environment's Fortnightly News Bulletin 10 December 2006 The Rich Must Face Their Personal Carbon Responsibility Dear Sir/Madam, We would like to take this opportunity to follow Sunita Narain's invitation in her latest Editorial ("Climate: the market's Achilles heel", CSE's Fortnightly News Bulletin, 30 November 30, 2006) to discuss how we can "make space for emissions." We wholeheartedly agree with Ms Narain's assessment that the warming of the global atmosphere is possibly the biggest and most difficult economic and political issue the world has ever needed to confront. And we agree with emphasising ­ in line with Sir Nicolas Stern's recent review ­ that the cost of taking mitigation action now is a small fraction of what we would have to pay as the cost of inaction: i.e. the cost of climate change impact damages which we will have to face if we fail to act now. Costs, it has to be emphasised that will be ­ and, indeed, are already ­ falling predominantly on the poorest and most vulnerable who are least responsible for the problem. Climate inequity extends beyond mitigation! Ms Narain rightly ...