Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

Many have been learned about climate change mitigation and adaptation when I attended the Focal Point and Expert Group Discussion and Training Workshop in Manila recently. Result of COP 17 (Conference of Parties) held in Durban last year was deliberated by officers from UNEP and followed by presentation from the ICLEI: Local Government for Sustainability, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, France Development Agency and provincial and local government from Philippines. While many countries have national action plan and programmes on mitigation countering the climate change, adaptation is relatively new for some disaster-less countries like Malaysia. For countries constantly visited by natural disaster such as typhoon, earthquake and flooding, adaptation is about life saving, property loss and resilient to sudden changes and adjusting back to normal life the soonest possible after disaster.

However, mitigation and adaptation is inseparable, both need to be tackle hand in hand. While sea water level up, extreme weather, rainfall intensity and others weather change are inevitable now, the phenomenon can be reduced and avoided with collective efforts from all mankind and nation through mitigation measures. For example, releasing the green house gases by individual is something within our control and influence. But saying is easy than done as under the capitalism system, people are rewarded for their efforts and hence tend to spend in material for the enjoyment of their hard work. It is nothing wrong to reward own-self by showering ourselves with the material gain and so on. However, if it comes to spending lavish on exclusive item with less actual use but mainly for the purpose of showing off or eating more than what require for filling in the stomach or worse throwing away the unfinished food, then these kind of consumption pattern should be corrected.

However, after Kyoto Protocol and now COP 17 is on going without definite conclusion, the World is still struggle on reaching consensus on shared responsibility. We cannot agree amongst each other because everyone is protecting their social-economy interest. No country wants to loss out to others unless force to accept the agreement due to own vulnerability, a key word in ability of a country or community to adapt the climate change.