DAVOS: Developing countries stand to suffer the worst effects of global warming, and should not have to pay for a problem created mainly by the rich, executives and experts said on Thursday.
At a gathering of 2,400 of the world’s most powerful people at Davos, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps, leaders from emerging nations said they wanted the United States, European Union and others in the West to be more accountable for the heat-trapping emissions their cars and factories produce.
They also asserted their right to stoke their own economies, even if greenhouse gas levels rise as a result.
“We, as a billion people, are going to be consuming a lot of services and goods that will create emissions. We will need technology, we will need money,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of the telecommunications company Bharti Enterprises.
On the World Economic Forum’s opening day on Wednesday, with freezing temperatures ending a balmy start to the Swiss winter, participants voted climate change as most likely to have an impact on the world in years ahead, as well as the issue global leaders are least ready for.
Leaders from rich countries have acknowledged the need for action to address the impacts of global warming for emerging nations, but made no major commitments to help during the World Economic Forum sessions.
Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam Britain, said the poor were particularly squeezed by growing calls to limit use of fossil fuels, which trap solar rays in the atmosphere and contribute to severe storms and ecological damage.
They are also most vulnerable to global warming’s effects, including irregular rainfall, floods and droughts that have decimated fertile lands and made subsistence farming difficult in much of Africa, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti and elsewhere.
