Energy & Environment

Documents & Texts from America.gov

04 June 2008
World Environment Day Urges "Kick the Carbon Habit"

By Lea Terhune
Staff Writer

Washington -- When World Environment Day was inaugurated by the U.N. General Assembly in 1972, few realized how critical an issue the environment still would be three decades later.

"Climate change is becoming the defining issue of our era," according to the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), and for that reason the emphasis for 2008 is promoting ways to live sustainably and stop practices that contribute to climate change.

“Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message introducing the theme, “Kick the carbon habit: toward a low carbon economy.“

“The environmental, economic and political implications of global warming are profound,” Ban said, citing the rapid changes “from mountain to ocean, from the poles to the tropics” documented by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC concluded that human activity is likely a major contributing factor to climate change and global warming. (See “U.S. Officials Praise Climate Change Report.”)

“Low-lying cities face inundation, fertile lands are turning to desert” and unpredictable weather patterns exacerbate soaring prices for staple foods and increase the likelihood of conflict over diminishing resources, he said.

“The poor will be hardest hit,” Ban said, reiterating “the damaging effect of our addiction” to burning carbon through fossil fuels and unsustainable manufacturing practices. Rampant deforestation also contributes significantly to global warming, he said.

The effect already is being felt by human populations and plant and animal species in vulnerable regions worldwide. In some of these regions, flora and fauna are being exploited to extinction by criminal traffickers in endangered species.

For that reason, to coincide with World Environment Day, the U.S. State Department is launching an initiative to raise public awareness about fighting illegal wildlife trafficking. Public service announcements by actor Harrison Ford, who donated his time, will highlight this global campaign.

U.S. BUSINESSES, COMMUNITIES PLEDGE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION CUTS

On greenhouse gas reduction, pledges solicited in March at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) are being implemented by communities, countries and businesses internationally. These commitments to reduce use of carbon-based fuels in favor of renewable energy sources and to minimize detrimental practices support the drive to “kick the carbon habit.” To date, 140 pledges have been vetted and listed on the REN21 Web site. (See “Social Entrepreneurs Target Climate Change.”)

Ambassador Reno L. Harnish III, principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, told America.gov that WIREC “gave a strong impulse to low-carbon societies around the world.”

The WIREC pledges, being analyzed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, are significant. “We can see already that the pledges taken together” will prevent the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases. Harnish added, “It is edifying to see the number of pledges from developing countries, from Cape Verde to Nicaragua to Jordan. These countries clearly are moving in their own way toward a low-carbon society.

“The United States supports the movement toward a low-carbon society domestically and abroad,” he said, through targeted legislation in the United States and programs such as the Asia Pacific Partnership and the Global Village Partnership abroad. Besides reducing the carbon footprint, “these programs also provide energy security and rural development to developing countries,” Hamish said.

He said the 17-nation Major Economies process aims at negotiating “to achieve a credible long-term goal and a binding medium-term goal.”

Big businesses are making a difference as more jump on the green bandwagon. An example is Wal-Mart, ranked America’s largest corporation on the 2008 Fortune 500 list. UNEP commended it for its success in cutting excess toy packaging, making a noteworthy contribution to carbon-emissions reduction by saving trees and for transport fuel expenditures. Since 2005 Wal-Mart has introduced eco-friendly practices in its operations, drafting innovators like Rocky Mountain Institute co-founder Amory Lovins to help.

Wal-Mart works with several certifying agencies like the Forestry Stewardship Council and the Marine Stewardship Council to ensure sustainability of certain products. But Wal-Mart’s self-acknowledged uneven success in going green still attracts criticism from some environmental groups, who say sustainability gains in one area frequently are negated by the company’s other practices.

A U.S. leader in kicking the carbon habit is the Department of Defense, which pledged to replace 25 percent of its fossil fuel use with renewable energy sources.

“The Pentagon is an emerging leader within the federal government in getting this country off of oil,” Amory Lovins said in a recent Popular Mechanics magazine interview.

Individuals, organizations, communities and governments are urged to become energy conscious and take direct action to develop energy-efficient lifestyles that incorporate alternative energy sources, natural resource conservation and eco-friendly consumption.

For more information, see World Environment Day 2008 on the U.N. Environment Programme’s Web site.

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