Solutions to stop global warming outlined in a new United Nations-backed report may ignite heated debates, if not actually compel governments to make choices that would impact their respective economies. The report, ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’, is the third in a series launched this year by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The first two — scientific bodies of work that presented a bleak forecast — were ‘Physical Science Basis’, released in February, and ‘Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’, released in early April.

Some 2,000 top scientists, environmentalists and government officials from over 180 countries are expected to gather in Bangkok for a week-long meeting to debate the new report before its release on May 4. The panel is seeking ways to limit or prevent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance “activities that remove them from the atmosphere,” states a background note released by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

But a Thai academic and member of his country’s team reviewing the report says this third volume will generate a “hot, fiery debate”. Anond Snidvong, an environment expert at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said that “because the solutions are related to present and future economic development of countries,” they would matter more to governments. The success of the report will be gauged by how willing governments are to embrace the new alternative energy technologies to “reduce GHGs in each economic sector of their respective countries,” he added.

Environmental activists heading for the Bangkok meeting say that governments from across the economic spectrum cannot afford to stall further the introduction of new technologies to combat carbon emission from fossil fuels, like oil, coal and gas. “This report is very much about technology options that work to reduce carbon emissions based on evidence,” says Catherine Pearce, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth International, a global network of grassroots environmental organisations. The political commitment of countries will be tested in “how strongly governments will want to invest and where money will be directed to encourage these technologies,” she said.

“There is a need to phase in energy efficiency and a need for a massive uptake of renewable energy sources,” Shailendra Yashwant, climate and energy team manager for the South-east Asia office of Greenpeace, said. The expected blueprint for change in the energy sector targets countries in the developing and developed world. Both have major polluters, ranging from developed nations like the US and Australia to developing countries such as China and India. The US and China top the lists as the world leading producers of GHGs due to high dependency on fossil fuels. “Failure to change our energy sources will not only affect future generations, but the impact will be felt with present ones also,” says Yashwant. “This is the hour of solutions.” — IPS