Climate change is not an abstraction on future threat. It is happening now, with damaging consequences. Failure to take meaningful action in Copenhagen will not only fail those who are suffering today, but will also jeopardize the well-being of our planet and future generations."- Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary - General

From Kyoto (Japan) in 1997 to Copenhagen (Denmark) this coming December, it is evident that the efforts by the international community to save the planet Earth from the ravaging effects of climate change are gaining momentum. In retrospect, the United Nations' climate summit of December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, produced a multi-lateral agreement in which nations committed themselves to reducing the emissions of ozone depletion gases or the so-called greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming - including carbon dioxide (Co2) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Over 184 countries were signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, which is the cornerstone pact of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The protocol set legally binding emission reduction targets for about 37 industrialised or developed nations in 2012, while developing countries, by virtue of the agreement, are required to seek mitigation and adaptation supports (including technology transfers) and compensations from the developed world. Not surprisingly, this is part of the reasons leading industrial polluter countries like the United States (US), China, India and Brazil did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Obviously, the latest round of the United Nations' climate summit, scheduled to hold on December 7 - 18 in Copenhagen, Denmark, is coming on the heels of the failure of the Kyoto system to achieve its goal of curbing the level of greenhouse gas emissions, which has taken a turn for the worse. This is no thanks to the inability of the industrialised countries to make a significant cut in their emission levels. The Copenhagen summit, therefore, is expected to set agenda on issues that will shape a successor global treaty to the current Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012. Hopefully, the post-Kyoto regime would establish new and more binding targets for cutbacks in greenhouse gases among industrialised countries, while offering a variety of options for helping newly industrialising countries like China, India and Brazil to move to a pattern of economic growth devoid of much carbon emissions in future. The treaty would also explore ways to support developing countries to adapt to climate change, particularly those in Africa, which have contributed the least greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

That developed and developing countries desperately need to bypass their age-long mutual attitudes of distrust and disagreement on development issues in order to avert a catastrophic breakdown of the planet's ecosystems cannot be overstated. This is hugely important against the backdrop of the devastating impact of climate change and the associated global warming, which are the spin-off of the continuing depletion of stratospheric ozone layer that shields living things on earth from the potentially disastrous levels of ultra-violet radiation from the sun. The most ozone-attacking emissions are carbon dioxide and CFCs, which have been generated in the industrialised countries since the advent of the industrial revolution in the 18th century through burning of fossil fuels (Coal, Oil). These emissions, along with acid deposition or "acid rain" associated with trans-border air pollution, which is also harmful to the ozone layer, have now made developing countries vulnerable to global warming. No less harmful are the problems of large-scale cutting and burning of rainforests, urban/industrial encroachment in green and conservation areas, gas flaring and reckless disposal of industrial wastes in developing regions like Africa, which are equally a major factor in the rising carbon content of the atmosphere.

Evidently, such environmental pollutions and man's interference with nature at alarming rates have painted a doomsday scenario for our planet, in form of climate change. In this connection, scientific evidence has been mounting in recent years that globally, the climate is changing more rapidly than estimated, due to the extraordinary high levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping industrially produced chemicals in the atmosphere, particularly CFCs. Alas, today, nine out of every 10 recorded disasters are climate related. Rising temperatures and more frequent and prolonged natural disasters like floods, droughts and storms (hurricanes, cyclones, and tsunamis) would be impacting the lives of millions of people around the globe, with the likelihood of unleashing unprecedented human dislocation and migration and the concomitant resource conflicts. Many species of plants and animals could be harmed, if not decimated by intense forms of solar radiation that would reach the biosphere. Aquatic species at the larvae stage could be especially vulnerable to the unfolding harsh climatic conditions. Rainforests would be shrinking, while deserts, including Sahara, would be expanding and soils eroding. Reduced water flows, stemming from global warming, would hit the water resources sector and drastically affect agriculture, fisheries, water transportation and hydro electric generation, as well as ignite serious competition and risk of conflict between or among countries sharing rivers, as imminent among the nine African countries sharing the River Nile.

There are also concerns that the increased radiation resulting from each one percent reduction in the ozone layer may lead to a 10 percent increase in human skin cancers and other health problems. Due to temperature fluctuation and change in weather patterns, many dry areas would get drier, resulting in droughts and desertification in some places, and wet areas would get wetter, culminating in flooding, erosions and landslides. Ocean surges and rises in sea levels would lead to flooding in many coastal cities. Changes in precipitation (rainfall) level and patterns would occur in many countries, alas having a deleterious impact on agriculture and food security. Not equally immune from the vagaries of climate change is the atmosphere - a thin and transparent layer of air that surrounds the earth and sets it apart from other planets that are inhospitable to all forms of life, as well as moderates the climate - which is, increasingly, threatened by pollution emissions and other human activities like illegal logging and bush burning.

It is worrisome that developing countries, particularly those in Africa, would be hard-hit by the calamitous impact of climate change. This stems from their low capacity building for mitigation and adaptation to the ecological crisis. Not helping matters for such countries in responding proactively to the current climate sensitivity are a smorgasbord of developmental contradictions and hiccups emanating from bad governance, corruption, institutional collapse, poor capital formation, pervasive and endemic poverty, AIDS scourge, technological backwardness, Malthusian population surge, multi-dimensional disasters, civil strife and armed conflicts.

In the light of the uncertain future facing mankind as a result of climate change, it is reassuring that countries around the world, under the auspices of the United Nations, are meeting in December in Copenhagen, Denmark, to seal a new deal on this immense global ecological problem. There are expectations that the developed world would use the all-important summit to make further concessions on greenhouse gas emission cuts. In particular, major industrial polluter countries like the US, China, India and Brazil should use the opportunity of the Copenhagen negotiations to reconnect to the Kyoto Protocol by cutting down their substantial amount of man-made carbon gases, at least between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 over 1990 levels. These countries should also commit themselves to legally enforceable carbon emission reductions for the second period of the protocol, from 2012 to 2016 and beyond. Equally, they should, principally, be responsible for their current high levels of greenhouse emissions so far and recognise that they need to pay up because of this, as outlined in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) - which requires industrialised nations to offset carbon emissions in concrete projects, pay for carbon cuts in developing countries and promote climate - friendly initiatives.