Jaraslau Bekish: It is due time for Belarus to consider switch to the “green economy”
15.04.2014 |Society| EuroBelarus Information Service,
Experts-climatologists analyzed the data of the recent scientific research into the climate change and concluded that all the continents will experience climate change.
These issues are touched upon in the third installment in a comprehensive four-part report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented on Sunday, April 13 in Berlin.
The IPCC called for international coordination to address the challenges of climate change, for instance by setting up carbon-pricing institutions, promoting CO2 taxes and ramping up investment in renewable energy. The key message in the IPCC report is that the worrisome scenarios can still be avoided. "Only major institutional and technological change will give a better than even chance that global warming will not exceed this threshold," the U.N. panel concludes.
Sunday's report says emissions need to be cut across a wide range of human activity, including energy production and use, transport, buildings, industry, land use and human settlements.
The long-term scenarios for mitigating climate change were generated mainly by large-scale integrated models that link many human systems—such as energy, agriculture, land use and economy—with physical processes related to climate change, such as the carbon cycle. In addition to cutting greenhouse gases, the latest report says climate change can also be reduced by expanding the use of renewable energy and storing greenhouse gases underground.
Jaraslau Bekish, the Coordinator of the ecological association “Green network”, believes that we should start switching to low-carbon economic decisions, as the longer we put this problem off the harder it will be for Belarus to eliminate the consequences of the climate change.
- The economists have demonstrated a vast number of benefits that environmentally safe energy sources have – the creation of new working places, improvements of people’s health, energy safety and independence; in other words, everything that we talk about in the context of the “green economy”. Unfortunately, in Belarus we still lack behind the words trends and miss lots of opportunities.
According to the expert, it is seen from the report that the introduction and development of low-carbon transport is one of the most effective solutions for our Belarusan developing economy. “Everyone sees how quickly the number of individual transport is growing in Minsk, but the reaction on this problem stands far from “green decisions” – we are to consider this problem in greater detail”, says the expert.
The Belarus Committee of ICOMOS announces the collection of cases on the effectiveness of the State List of Historical and Cultural Values as a tool of the safeguarding the cultural monuments.
On March 27-28, the Belarus ICOMOS and the EuroBelarus held an online expert workshop on expanding opportunities for community participation in the governance of historical and cultural heritage.
It is impossible to change life in cities just in three years (the timeline of the “Agenda 50” campaign implementation). But changing the structure of relationships in local communities is possible.
"Specificity is different, but the priority is general." In Valożyn, a local strategy for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed.
The campaign "Agenda 50" was summed up in Ščučyn, and a local action plan for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed there.
The regional center has become the second city in Belarus where the local plan for the implementation of the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed.
Representatives of the campaign “Agenda 50” from five pilot cities discussed achievements in creating local agendas for implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It is noteworthy that out of the five pilot cities, Stoubcy was the last to join the campaign “Agenda 50”, but the first one to complete the preparation of the local agenda.
On May 28, the city hosted a presentation of the results of the project "Equal to Equal" which was dedicated to monitoring the barrier-free environment in the city.
On March 3, members of the campaign "Agenda 50" from different Belarusian cities met in Minsk. The campaign is aimed at the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In Stolin, social organizations and local authorities are implementing a project aimed at independent living of persons with disabilities, and creating local agenda for the district.
He said Belarus would likely face economic tightening not only as a result of the coronavirus pandemic but also a Russian trade oil crisis that worsened this past winter.
In his report, philosopher Gintautas Mažeikis discusses several concepts that have been a part of the European social and philosophical thought for quite a time.
It is impossible to change life in cities just in three years (the timeline of the “Agenda 50” campaign implementation). But changing the structure of relationships in local communities is possible.