Act now:

There are millions across the globe who are waiting to see if US President Barack Obama will live up to his pledge to invest in renewable energy and help put the brakes on climate change. The EU has wholeheartedly embraced Kyoto while Australia did the same in 2007 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took office. But the US under George Bush doggedly stuck to its line that individual states have the right to set their own emission targets.

In doing so, America missed the point altogether. The battle against climate change must by necessity be a concerted effort because the actions of one nation can have an impact on a country thousands of miles away. Take the case of Pakistan. It is estimated

that environmental degradation is eroding Pakistan’s GDP by nearly five per cent a year - Rs365bn, or a billion rupees a day. Add to this

the havoc wreaked by climate change and the costs will be truly staggering. Livelihoods will be lost wholesale and millions are bound to be displaced.

The big polluters, such as the US, must also see the bigger picture and act accordingly. According to a 2006 report by UK government economist Sir Nicholas Stern, global warming could shrink the global economy by as much as 20 per cent. Acting now will cost the world just one per cent of its gross annual GDP. — Dawn (Pakistan)