A/42/427
English
Page 178
It is difficult to imagine an issue with more global impacts on human societies and the natural environment than the greenhouse effect. The signal is unclear but we may already be witnessing examples, if not actual greenhouse effects, in Africa.
The ultimate potential impacts of a greenhouse warming could be catastrophic. It is our considered judgement that it is already very late to start the process of policy consideration. The process of heightening public awareness, of building support for national policies, and finally for developing multilateral efforts to slow the rate of emissions growth will take time to implement.
The greenhouse issue is an opportunity as well as a challenge; not surprisingly, it provides another important reason to implement sustainable development strategies.
Irving Mintzer
World Resources Institute
WCED Public Hearing
Oslo, 24-25 June 1985
25. While these strategies are being developed, more immediate policy measures can and should be adopted. The most urgent are those required to increase and extend the recent steady gains in energy efficiency and to shift the energy mix more towards renewables. Carbon dioxide output globally could be significantly reduced by energy efficiency measures without any reduction of the tempo of GDP growth.[1] These measures would also serve to abate other emissions and thus reduce acidification and urban-industrial air pollution. Gaseous fuels produce less carbon dioxide per unit of energy output than oil or coal and should be promoted. especially for cookig and other domestic uses.
26. Gases other than carbon dioxide are thought to be responsible for about one-third of present global warming, and it is estimated that they will cause about half the problem around 2030.[2] Some of these, notably chlorofluorocarbons used as aerosols, refrigeration chemicals, and in the manufacture of plastics, may be more easily controlled than CO2. These, although not strictly energy-related, will have a decisive influence on policies for managing carbon ioxide emissions.
27. Apart from their climatic effect, chlorofluorocarbons are responsible to a large extent for damage to the earth's stratospheric ozone.[3] The chemical industry should make every effort to find replacements. and governments should require the use of such replacements when found (as some nations have outlawed the use of these chemicals as aerosols). Governments should ratify the existing ozone convention and develop protocols for the limitation of chlorofluorocarbon emissions, and systematically monitor and report implementation.
- ↑ D.J. Rose et al., Global Energy Futures an CO2-Induced Climate Change, MITEL Report 83–015 (Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983); A.M. Perry et al., 'Energy Supply and Demand Implication of CO2', Energy, Vol. 7, pp. 991–1004, 1982.
- ↑ Bolin et al., op. cit.
- ↑ G. Brasseur, 'The Endangered Ozone Layer: New Theories on Ozone Depletion', Environment, Vol. 29 No. 1, 1987.
