Berlin Wall and Tackling Climate Change

It was twenty years ago that the Berlin wall was brought down, marking a major transformation of relations between the great powers of the world. It is notable that the one person who had the vision to articulate and pursue Ostpolitik policy was the late Chancellor Willy Brandt. Undoubtedly, he foresaw the comprehensive changes that would come about through building bridges between the western world and the Soviet bloc.

In my view the demolition of the Berlin wall heralded new international relations in the field of global environmental governance. The year 1988 saw the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a year before the breaking down of the Berlin wall, and the initiation of negotiations towards the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in 1989. If the Berlin wall had not been broken down it can be stated that we would not have had the UNFCCC. What made this agreement possible in 1992 were the new global equations which enabled the countries of the former Soviet bloc and the rest of the world to treat with due objectivity the global problem of climate change rather than another political issue of contention between east and west. It is also no coincidence that Germany after reunification has been at the forefront of mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a development that would have been completely unthinkable if the Berlin wall had not been broken down.

Recent political developments including the historic event organized by the UN Secretary General on September 22^nd, involving world leaders from across the globe, have clearly brought to the fore the critical need to tackle the growing problem of climate change in all its dimensions. I had the privilege of addressing this Summit on September 22^nd, and ended my address with the following sentence:

“Avoiding the impacts of climate change through mitigation of emissions would

provide incalculable benefits including economic expansion and employment. If

those in this August gathering do not act on time, all of us would become leaders

and citizens of failed states, because we would be failing in our sacred duty to

protect this planet on which we all live. Science leaves us with no space for

inaction now.”

Indeed it is essential for global society and the leadership of every country to build a set of measures based on the scientific assessment of climate change, which admits of no delay in stringent mitigation of GHGs and adaptation to climate change which is already inevitable and for which the developed world must urgently provide adequate financial resources to the most vulnerable regions in developing countries.

R. K. Pachauri
Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI),
Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) &

Director, Yale Climate and Energy Institute

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