Big polluters ‘should lead climate struggle’

By: Judica Solomon Losai on October 7th, 2009

As the United Nations climate conference to be held in Copenhagen in December draws near, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has challenged the Earth’s major polluters, the rich nations, to act.

Opening the 55th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference recently in the northern tourist town of Arusha, Kikwete said developed countries must take the lead in saving the planet from the effects of climate change.

“Unfortunately the poor developing countries don’t have the technology, skills and resources to reduce the damage caused by climate change and to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, the president said. “Developed countries, which are the major polluters, must assist us to mitigate climate change effects.”

Turning to the Commonwealth parliamentarians, he said they could play a pivotal role by encouraging their governments to adopt environment-friendly policies both within their countries and in the global arena.

The president insisted on the need to cut the gases blamed for changing the climate. “For a clean and safe planet we must remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, reduce the current emissions levels and prevent new emissions from happening,” he said.

President Kikwete acknowledged that his country is already a victim of climate change, giving a potpourri of incidents said to be caused by global warming.

He cited the severe drought that is threatening Tanzania’s  food security and its wildlife–based tourism industry, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of livestock, particularly in the northern regions, and the melting of  snow at the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.

If that was not enough, the president said, the coastal town of Pangani was in danger of being submerged, which would force his government to build a wall to check the rising seawater.

The president said Maziwe Island had been completely submerged since the 1990s as a result of global climate change, and highland areas of Tanzania which used to be malaria-free were now facing a renewed threat of disease.

His appeal coincided with a report by the International Institute for Environment and Development which said that global warming could cut Tanzania’s gross domestic product by one per cent by the year 2030.

President Kikwete wants the polluters – the rich nations – to clean up the smoke. But are the big sharks ready to reduce their gigantic industrial   production and eventually cut their profit margins?