Climate change technology inaccessible for poor nations

Given the mutual benefits gained by completing projects under the Clean Development Mechanism, there does not appear to be any clear reason behind Australia’s lack of participation in this regard. However, this situation may be very different within the next few years.

As lobbyists and policy-makers meet in Durban to conduct the next stage of the climate change negotiations, designs for a new Technology Mechanism will be brought to the table. It is likely that this new mechanism will work to match developing communities with a diversity of projects and funding, based on determined needs.

To overcome the shortfalls of the Clean Development Mechanism, those charged with the implementation and oversight of the Technology Mechanism must be given a mandate to prioritise projects that seek to build the accessibility and reliability of energy supplies in the least developed nations.

It may seem counter-intuitive to push for increased access and consumption of energy in the name of climate change mitigation. However, it must be acknowledged that such access is a prerequisite to all economic and social development that all nations have a right to pursue.

Global development and energy consumption are unavoidably linked. To kick start nations on to a path of economic development it will require the delivery of new energy sources. We have the opportunity, the technology and the moral responsibility to set these nations off on the right path towards sustainable development.

If we are to demand that developing nations build their economies without the reliance on fossil fuels that we in the developed world have enjoyed, we must be the ones to assist them in this endeavour.

Like telling a loyal hound not to eat the sausages off the barbeque when your back is turned, the temptation to ignore calls not to turn to cheap fossil fuels to power new development is irresistible. We know this because we have already succumbed to it. We must act proactively to provide the alternatives, so that fossil fuels will longer appear as the ideal fuel of choice for emerging nations.

We need to ensure that clean technologies are an accessible option for the least developed nations and must work to break down the established barriers to access to clean energy sources.

We need to deploy the essential support infrastructure, in the form of electricity networks, energy efficient manufacturing equipment and the ability to replace household fuel consumption with electric alternatives. Doing this in conjunction with the deployment of renewable technologies would make possible to ensure developing nations associate economic progress with sustainable development.

In essence, we must be sharing the lessons learnt in our past, to ensure the nations of the future avoid the well-trodden path to environmental destruction, previously paved by the developed world.