The head of
UNEP, Klaus Töpfer, demands to combine the protection
of the environment and the fight against poverty. The North has to give up its
ecological aggression against the South.
Taz: As the head of UNEP you have been living in Nairobi for the last 3,5 years. Did it change your point of view in regards to the environment?
KT:
Absolutely, it has changes me completely. During the last few years we have
experienced one of the worst droughts at the Horn of Africa. The extreme
weather conditions cause starvation. Just walk to Downtown Nairobi and in the
slums you will find environmental refugees who didn´t
have anything left in their homelands because of desertification. In
Taz:
Al lot of people in the North consider the poverty in the South to to be their problem .
KT: A lot
of countries in the North shift the ecological costs of their prosperitiy to the South. In the South for instance
rainforests are protected for almost no costs at all – and from these virgin forest the North draws the wood for furniture. It´s not only charity when we show solidarity with the
South.
Taz:
Is that the same structure when talking about climatechange?
KT: It is
mainly the North that changes the climate. But the countries of the South pay
for the consequences of the climatechange. That´s what I
call “The ecological Aggession of the North against
the South”.
Taz:
And that could lead to wars?
KT: If precepitation changes due to climatechange
therefore wars for water could arise. The ecological aggression is a matter of
fact – it is nessesary to describe it that dramatic
so that not only the people here in the South who are
confronted with these circumstances every day understand these correlations.
Taz:
Is the climatechange already visible?
KT: Changes
are clearly noticible already: the number and the
severity of droughtsas well as of floods and storms is increasing as
you can tell by looking at the balances of insurances. We had a heavy drought
at the horn of
Taz:
Which chances do you apply to the summit in
KT:
Politicians have to come to terms with each other: even the business world has
made more progress so far. The modernisation of the energy supply in
Taz:
You are talking about
KT: Not
only
Taz:
what is the mood of the representatives of the developping
countries like?
KT: there
is a lot of frustration. Important promises from the summit in
Taz:
For example?
KT:
Originally it was promised to raise the part of foreign aid to 0,7 % of the economical income. At these times the percentage
lay at 0,4 %. In the meantime it was not raised after
all but dropped down to 0,24%. That is frustrating!
Taz:
You have gathered 1500 scientists for new reasearches
on environmental affairs. Do we still have a lack of knowledge?
KT: We do
in fact know a lot about the present state of the environment but we hardly know
anything about the origins and the dynamics of destruction. The environment is
an incredible treasure: anually we take more than
trillions of dollars worth of ressources out without
really paying or with paying only little for these values. Therefore it is
important to know about how much nature can bear. If we overstrain nature it
always leads to fatal consequences.
Taz:
Do have an idol?
KT: My idol
is the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, the IPCC. Their judgement of
the climatechange and the consequences has pointed
out to politics what there still is to do – and put them under pressure to
increase their activities. Something similar, I wish, would be needed for biodiversitiy, soil and sea protection.
Taz:
What will follow the cllimatediscussion?
KT: We also
need concrete aims for other matters of interest. I wish that the global summit in
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