By Barend ter Haar.
On 2 and 3 November 2015 an international conference will be held at the Peace Palace on “Planetary Security: Peace and Cooperation in Times of Climate Change and Global Environmental Challenges”.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to make this conference an annual event as part of its Planetary Security Initiative to enhance knowledge sharing and international cooperation.
The good news is that there is little reason to fear the end of our planet in the next thousand years. The bad news is that it is difficult to say the same about mankind. Will even our grandchildren and their children enjoy the same level of prosperity and welfare that the Dutch and a growing number of other people in the world are currently enjoying? It is very likely that this will to a large extent depend on the decisions that we will take in this and the coming years.
Every scientist will tell you that it is impossible to predict the future with 100% certainty. However, it is very unlikely that it is completely by chance that 19 of the 20 warmest years on record all occurred in the past two decades. It would be very unwise, to say the least, to ignore the likelihood that the current more intense storms, more severe heat waves, rise of the sea-level, ocean acidification and biodiversity losses are caused by climate change .
In short: we know more or less what risks we are confronted with and we know what we should do to reduce those risks, but so far most governments have not shown the willingness, or capacity, to take these risks serious and to do what is necessary to confront them.
The organisers of the conference rightly state that dealing effectively with the impacts of climate change requires “a “whole of government” approach involving the foreign and defence communities alongside those working on climate, environment and development issues and others” . In that light it is regrettable to notice that several relevant Dutch ministries such as the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture are conspicuously absent. The future of public health in the Netherlands is highly dependent on how global challenges such as climate change will be handled and education and science are essential instruments for dealing with such global challenges.
Hopefully these ministries will join the next conference.
