Worsening climatic condition and global warming worries NAM

Global warming has really affected and forced the climate to change over the last century throughout the world. Unusual increase in the earth’s average temperature is because of the high amount of greenhouse gases released due to burning fossil fuels and other human activities. According to several researches, it has been recorded that almost 30 percent of the heat by incoming sunlight gets reflected back to the space through clouds and ice but because of global warming the existing ice caps are melting, leaving no sources to send heat back to the space and therefore affecting the earth’s climate. It is one of the most important global problems with unique characteristics.

The developing countries are especially vulnerable because a large share of their economy is in climate-sensitive sectors and their adaptive capacity is low due to limited human, financial and natural resources and institutional and technical capacity. As has been repeatedly addressed, the developing nations will be the first to face adversity due to our changing natural environment. Costal nations like Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and seven out of ten countries in the African continent will be submerged due to the rising sea level and changing climate.

NAM which was born as a result of pure political issues now has evolved to address issues that are threatening the contemporary world at large. Problems like the increasing population, unemployment, illiteracy, gender equation, conflict resolution, poverty etc are identified as priorities. Among such topics is another issue that has drawn attention over the last couple of decades that needs to be addressed by the NAM member states is ‘Climate Change’.

In the year 2009 NAM member states presented themselves as an outspoken critic of any legislation that wouldn’t cap carbon dioxide emissions and establish a national program for trading pollution allowances.

On 25 May 2011 at NAM’s 50th Anniversary meeting in Bali, the United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon called on the Non-Aligned Movement compromising of more than 100 countries to assist in “urgent global action” to combat the threat posed by climate change. The UN secretary General urged the Non-Aligned countries to come to a resolution on the future of the Kyoto protocol and on ways to engage the NAM member states in an emerging global framework.The UN Secretary General further called the Nam member countries to curb emissions and strengthen climate resilience.

According to the UN Secretary General, it was in the best interests for developing countries if NAM worked in support of the United Nations in areas of energy access, energy efficiency and clean efficiency. On 27th September 2013, President of the UN general Assembly Dr. John Ashe said that against a backdrop of increasing impact of climate change, inequality between and among countries and more than a billion people living in extreme poverty, the cooperation between NAM countries-founded on a virtue of solidarity was imperative for improving the socio-economic development for their citizens .

The Non-Aligned Movement should play a more constructive role with regard to climate change as members from the Non-Aligned world are most vulnerable from threats emanating due to the phenomenon. The World Bank has made a list of the main five threats arising from the climate change: droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels, and agricultural products deficit. Not surprisingly, members of NAM have topped the list of the 12 countries at the highest risk. NAM must pursue an effective policy to reduce the hazards of climate change within a multilateral framework, as environment policy is not an isolated object and cooperation between developing countries in this regards will result in positive spill-over effects in achieving the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and providing the basis for livelihoods, health and security, particularly for the poor.