Global or local approach to climate change - which is better for Czech Republic?
Last August the Czech Republic was hit by the worst flooding in the last 500 years. This summer was, by contrast, hot and dry with record-breaking temperatures. There has been some disagreement over whether greenhouse gases are to blame for climate change, but enough developed countries were convinced of the dangers of man-made emissions that they signed up to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Czech Republic is one of the countries which ratified the agreement, which says emissions must be cut by an average of 5.2 percent. Jan Pretel works for the Czech Hydro-meteorological Office - he says to achieve pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, emissions would have to be reduced much more substantially - by 50 percent.
Last August the Czech Republic was hit by the worst flooding in the last 500 years. This summer was, by contrast, hot and dry with record-breaking temperatures. There has been some disagreement over whether greenhouse gases are to blame for climate change, but enough developed countries were convinced of the dangers of man-made emissions that they signed up to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Czech Republic is one of the countries which ratified the agreement, which says emissions must be cut by an average of 5.2 percent. Jan Pretel works for the Czech Hydro-meteorological Office - he says to achieve pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, emissions would have to be reduced much more substantially - by 50 percent.
"Well, I agree with the Kyoto Protocol but it will be necessary that all countries ratify the Kyoto Protocol, that all countries meet the targets which are given by the Kyoto Protocol. The problem is that the Kyoto Protocol has not come into force yet. The United States decided not to follow this process and the United States contributes to the global carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25 percent. The Russian Federation did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol either and it contributes by more than 15 percent. And what about developing countries?"
On the global scale the Czech Republic is not a large greenhouse gas polluter. For that reason, says Jan Pretel, it should concentrate on local measures aimed at dealing with the consequences of climate change, not on investing in the further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
"The real situation is the Czech Republic's Kyoto Protocol target is minus 8 percent. We already reduced the emissions by 25 percent, which is significantly more than minus 8 percent. So I think that a further emission reduction is quite costly. From that point of view, you have to have in mind that our contribution, the Czech contribution is only half a percent of the total needs and if such big and rich countries as the United States or a big country like the Russian Federation contribute between them by 40 percent, why I should invest much more money? My question is, is it an efficient investment of the money or not. From my point of view I need to save the people who are living in the Czech Republic and that is the reason why I am supporting more or less the adaptation process."
As examples of what he calls adaptation, Mr Pretel suggested cleaning the country's river beds and various flood-prevention measures.
