In my view, there is an urgent need for the world's statesmen and stateswomen to take up this issue personally and see it through. We must break through the barrier that prevents us from contemplating responses to the threat of global warming because of economic implications of inconvenience. The assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change must be accepted as the scientific foundation of the debate and not the subject of the debate. No agreement should be contemplated that is not legally enforceable and carrying penalties sufficient to prevent any Party from gaining competitive advantage through non-compliance. And much greater public awareness and understanding of the issues will be fundamental both to meaningful debate at the national level and to any possibility for consensus.
Reductions are achievable and can be undertaken without great costs or damage to economies.
Use of the market forces involving the awarding and trading of carbon credits, sharing of greening technology, developing and applying new and renewable sources of energy, initiating domestic energy saving programmes at the municipal and grassroots levels, particularly in the transport sector and in commercial energy use, and pollution control will quickly bring about the needed savings. Billions of dollars will be spent when there are dykes to build to hold back the seas and refugees to save and relocate. The less we do now, the faster and greater the change and the greater the expense. When there is a crisis attributable to climate change there will be a response. There will be no disputing the scientific evidence then.