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| Former Irish premier John Bruton is interviewed by Xinhuanet during the 2011 Kubuqi International Desert Forum held in the Kubuqi Desert, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, July 9, 2011. (Xinhuanet/Chen Jingchao) |
This is the third Forum to be held and it has won worldwide recognition as one the most important gatherings of its kind in the world. This Forum is considering how advances in technology can be used to halt and reverse desertification, and thus directly to alleviate poverty, and in some cases, to prevent starvation.
The speakers you will hear are amongst the foremost experts in the world, from places as far apart as Oregon State University in the United States, the state forest Administration of the Slovak Republic, the Burundi Ministry of Trade, The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Baikal Region of Siberia, and the Ministry of Environment of Nepal.
I have learned much from the work I, and other visitors, have been shown prior to today’s Forum meeting. The work of planting trees to prevent the advance of the desert, the river basin protection work, and the botanical research , are most impressive.
STOPPING THE DESERT, CONSERVING WATER AND MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE
They set an example for other parts of the world, including my own continent of Europe, which also face the problem of desertification, and of water conservation.
I note that 5000 square kilometres of the Kubuqi desert have been planted with trees in the past 20 years. This not only halts the advance of the desert, but it also sequesters carbon and thereby mitigates climate change as well.
If, by international agreement, a realistic global price could be placed on carbon emissions, enterprises like this here in Inner Mongolia would become even more profitable, and more widespread.
Coal is a hugely important part of the economy of Inner Mongolia and I believe you have doubled coal output within a five year period.
Carbon Capture and Storage at all coal plants will , sooner or later, be necessary if we are not to face a global catastrophe as a result of the release of carbon into the atmosphere through coal burning, but carbon capture and storage is very expensive, and will impose significant costs on families by adding to their energy bills.
WATER IS SCARCE IN CHINA
Water is a vital resource for China.
According to the World Bank, the amount of water available per person in China is only a quarter of the world average.
Power generation from coal is a heavy user of water.
I have heard of one estimate that 40% of the future increase in water consumption in China will be due to its use in coal fired power generation. Northern China has 40% of China’s population but only 15% of its water supply, so this represents a big challenge. It also make the work to conserve water, and combat desertification, central to securing the economic future of the whole country.
Reafforesting the desert mitigates the effects of carbon emissions and thus reduces global warming problem. Unlike carbon capture and storage, it will not add to the energy costs to be borne by families. In fact, by protecting food production capacity, it eventually contributes to lower food prices than would otherwise be the case.
China is home to half of all the energy intensive industry in the world. As a result, China became a net importer of coal in 2007. Power generation will account for 68% of China’s additional coal consumption.
A GLOBAL AGREEMENT COULD HELP CHINA ACHIEVE ITS GOALS
Ensuring that the climate damage of all this power generation is minimized will require a global agreement, perhaps including the banning of certain practices. That may be easier to enforce than purely market based approaches.
If China is making big and costly efforts to minimize emissions, it should not find itself undercut on global markets by other countries, who are less scrupulous or who think they will are less affected by climate change than China will be.
While decarbonising power generation through carbon capture and storage will be immensely costly, it is technically becoming more feasible. Decarbonising transportation, particularly air transport, will be even more difficult and we not even begun to do anything at all about that.
HERBS FOR HEALTHCARE
As someone who has a deep business interest in the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I note that you have developed herbal medicine, drawing on desert resources. The pollution free growing herbs for medicine, on ground that was previously unproductive, shows how traditional knowledge ,dating back thousands of years, can be supplemented by the most modern agricultural techniques and the most advanced soil science. Congratulations on this work. It is all the more important because of the big increase that has taken place in the price of herbs used in Traditional Chinese medicine
I am also very impressed by the way you have developed desert tourism. This resort attracts 300,000 tourists a year. Just as I hope to see many more Chinese tourists coming to Europe, and to my own green island of Ireland in particular, I hope many Europeans will come as tourists to the resort you have developed here in the desert. They will be interested to see that the carbon dioxide released by the hotel is reabsorbed by the rare plants growing in the Desert Plant Centre.
THE CAUSES OF DESERTIFICATION
Desertification happens when land, that was previously capable of supporting life, is turned into infertile sand by erosion. This is a problem in all the continents of the world, except Antarctica.
Deserts , worldwide, expand by about 50000 square kilometres per year, and desertification threatens the livelihoods of a billion people in 110 countries. In Europe, Spain is particularly affected.
Desertification is a particular problem in China.
During the 1990s, the Gobi desert grew by an area equivalent to half the size of Pennsylvania. The immediate cause was wind eroding a soil that has become so dry and loose that it is prone to be blown away. Sandstorms from Northern China reach as far as Korea and Japan. Ironically, flooding can also lead to desertification by physically loosening soil.
One Chinese study suggests that soil becomes prone to erosion for the following reasons
1.) Overgrazing (30%). The number of sheep grazing here in Inner Mongolia trebled in the 1980s, and that reduced the amount of grassland by almost two thirds. I am told that a plague of rats also contributed to the problem.
2.) Excess land reclamation of unsuitable soil (27%)
3.) The collection of firewood (33%)
4.) Water misuse (10%). Excessive irrigation can make soil salty and infertile.
The pressure of providing food and fuel for an increasing population can lead people to overuse land in a way that eventually leads to the destruction of its fertility.
We have also got to conserve water, because water demand is increasing rapidly. Urban societies consume more water than rural ones. Meat production requires much more water than grain production, but as people get richer, they eat more meat.
The pressure of providing food and fuel for an increasing population can lead people to overuse land in a way that eventually leads to the destruction of its fertility.
We have also got to conserve water, because water demand is increasing rapidly. Urban societies consume more water than rural ones. Meat production requires much more water than grain production, but as people get richer, they eat more meat.
THE SOLUTION....... PLANT TREES, MANAGE GRASSLAND, CONSERVE WATER
The solution is to be found by
planting trees,
managing grassland better and
conserving water in river basins.
Curbing bad practices and initiating good practices requires effective political organisation. It requires sacrifice and imagination. In the past ten years, China has begun to reverse the process of desertification. This is a magnificent achievement.
I am sure it was not easy.
Practices that cause desertification are often profitable in the short term, and practices that halt desertification will usually impose costs and losses in the short term.
The losses will often fall disproportionately on some groups in society, while the longer term gains will often be reaped by others, who will have undergone none, or few, of the costs.
A VITAL ROLE FOR GOVERNMENT
I am sure it was not easy.
Practices that cause desertification are often profitable in the short term, and practices that halt desertification will usually impose costs and losses in the short term.
The losses will often fall disproportionately on some groups in society, while the longer term gains will often be reaped by others, who will have undergone none, or few, of the costs.
A VITAL ROLE FOR GOVERNMENT
Acknowledging these difficulties honestly is important. Compensating the losers, at least in part, is also important if reforms are to be implemented in a good and cooperative spirit. This is something that can usually only be done by Government. The private sector, whose natural and proper goal is profit maximization, is not able to redistribute gains and losses across society as a whole, and over time, in a ways that ensure the best long term outcome.
One of the reasons the United States has such difficulty coming to a global agreement on climate change is that its citizens distrust Government as such, and thus do not want to see their own Government taking resources form some people and giving them to others, even in the interest of combatting climate change. This is also one of the reasons the United states continues to wastefully deplete its water resources.
In the European Union, the public does not have the same problem with Government action as such, but the European Union consists of 27 sovereign states, who are pooling sovereignty on a voluntary basis. So the distribution of burdens between different states is liable to become subject to nationalistic disputes. This will become acute if countries, many of whom already have precarious fiscal positions, find themselves having to pay fines, because they have exceeded carbon emission limits that they agreed to previously.
DISTIBUTING COSTS AND BUILDING TRUST....SIMILARITIES TO EUROPE’S TASK IN PRESERVING THE EURO
No matter what ones political system is, these distributional issues are acutely political , and can only be resolved by the use of political skill, and by persuading people that they can trust their neighbours enough to make sacrifices for them, in the confident expectation of being allowed to share in rewards later.
In essence, that is also the problem at the heart of the difficulties the EU is experiencing with euro and Greece. A problem of trust, and a problem of distribution of burdens. So combatting desertification and climate change, and preserving the euro, have something in common!
The world population is now 7 billion and will eventually reach 9 billion. We cannot afford to lose fertile food producing land if we are to avoid famine. That is why this Forum is important to the world as a whole.
Speech by John Bruton, Former Prime Minister of Ireland, and current President of the Irish International Financial Services Centre , in Qixinghu, Inner Mongolia ,China at 9.30 am on 9 July 2011 to the Kubuqi Desert Forum
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thanks
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