Developing Countries Responsibility in Climate Change

            Driessen’s article states many reasons why it is unfair for developing countries to be held responsible for making efforts to mitigate climate change. He believes that they are not in an economic position to be able to think about environmental problems, and that developed countries are ignoring their needs and problems by expecting them to make efforts towards becoming environmentally friendly. However, developing countries are only hurting themselves by continuing to pollute and contribute to climate change. By continuing with their current lifestyle, they are only exacerbating their problems and making them more difficult to overcome.

            Driessen seems to expect developing countries to get a free pass for dealing with climate change due to the other problems they are facing such as disease, malnutrition, and poverty. However climate change is a global problem that cannot be solved with only developed countries. Regardless of what countries contributed the most to climate change in the past, the entire world will be forced to deal with the consequences without international efforts. It is unfair that the rest of the world, and future generations will have to deal with the harsh effects of climate change if developing countries choose to not lower their emissions.

            A common argument for why developing countries should not have to make mitigation efforts is that developed countries were able to burn fossil fuels without limits in order to create a strong economy. However this is before the majority of information regarding climate change was released. Had developed countries known then the harsh consequences of burning fossil fuels, they would have been expected to curb their emissions. With current technology and knowledge that is known regarding climate change, it is fair to expect developing countries to do their part to lower greenhouse gases.

            By expecting developing countries to lower their emissions, developed countries are by no means ignoring the interests of the global south. Many of the affects of climate change will hit developing countries the hardest. Higher temperatures will reduce the growing periods for crops, hurting crop production. Lower crop yields will cause disrupted incomes, both of which could increase world hunger. Many diseases such as malnutrition, malaria, and dengue are climate sensitive and increased temperatures will only increase cases of these diseases. Because of these problems climate change could cause, it is certainly in the best interest of developing countries to lower their greenhouse gases. It will become impossible for them to overcome their other problems with the risks posed by climate change.

            Perhaps environmentalists are leaning towards the precautionary side when dealing with climate change. However due to the complexity of the problems climate change could cause, taking preventative measures is more than necessary. The longer the world waits to see the full effects of climate change, it will be too late reverse the effects. The consequences are not only very long term, but will be very difficult to handle, and will eventually effect the quality of life among many. When dealing with problems this big, taking precautionary measure is necessary and is by no means limiting growth. 

            The author also disagrees with the term sustainable development, and he believes that it is impossible to achieve under such a rapidly growing population. The author should think about sustainable development not as limiting growth, but as smart growth. Developing countries can still grow, but it needs to be done in a way that considers future generations and their needs. It would be unfair to leave them with our huge mess to clean up, and force them into a lower quality of life.

Overall, Driessen does not seem to think about the future or the problems they will face if nothing is done to mitigate climate change now. The potential problems climate change could cause are not something the world should risk. Even if lowering greenhouse gas emissions and requiring developing countries to do the same is taking a precautionary measure, avoiding the potential large scale problems that could occur is certainly in everyone’s best interest.