The Climate Vulnerability Monitor Report, released by a reputed research organisation, maintains that all countries are vulnerable to effects of global climate change, as earth continues its warming trend, triggering deep concern, particularly about low-lying states that are most vulnerable. The report has categorised multiplicity of impacts made by climate change in terms of human health, weather disasters, habitat loss and economic loss in over 170 countries.
The super flood that had laid large swathes of territory in Pakistan devastated, resulting in massive human dislocation, infrastructure and habitat loss, not to speak of destruction of crops, is said to have been an effect of climate change. According to one estimate, the number of deaths caused by climate-induced natural disasters and diseases has reached 350,000 a year. If the trend remains unchecked, researchers have predicted that one million people are likely to die as a result of extreme weather disasters each year, beginning from 2030.
Differences remain among nations on such issues as reduction in emission levels, protection from climate impact and inspection of other countries' emission curbs, which have been a major point of discord among participating countries. Cancun talks have meanwhile entered a decisive phase, though the participants remain divided over how to toughen the existing pledges to cut down carbon emissions, made at the Copenhagen summit last year. Some analysts have termed the chances of failure of Cancun summit as great as they were at Copenhagen in 2009. The biggest obstacle to consensus on a cut in greenhouse gas emissions and other issues seems to be the propensity among industrialised nations to hold behind-the-scene talks, which compromises transparency, and riles less-developed countries.
This may prompt underdeveloped countries to disassociate themselves from the final outcome, which will be a grave setback to global efforts to keep greenhouse gas emissions low enough to attain pre-industrial levels. As global climate change has been termed as the greatest threat to life on this planet, there is a need to avoid "group politics" by great powers to make the initiative a success for humanity. The island states, which are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, maintain that the upper limit of 2 centigrade is too high, and have accordingly rejected it. However, an encouraging development is that the participating states are said to have agreed to set up a special fund of $100 billion to help vulnerable countries cope with the effects of climate change.
The Cancun summit, like earlier such initiatives taken from time to time, is too important, to be allowed to fall a prey to self-interest of the industrialised West. Holding closed-door sessions at a global summit to guard long-term good of humanity indicates that the developed countries may try to collectively undercut interests of the Third World. As the issue is equitable economic and industrial development of all countries, which needs to be even-handed. The establishment of a UN fund to counter effects of climate change is a good move. There is a need to maintain a rational balance among developed and developing countries and to narrow, as far as possible, all the differences to a reasonable level in the larger interest of equitable progress.