Pachauri thinks Basque work is essential to fight climate change

Eitb24.com has made an exclusive interview to Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year together with Al Gore. Pachauri has assured that it’s absolutely essential that you have to asses what the specific impacts of climate change are going to be and they can only be tackled by the local community.

eitb24.com: -How can a small country such as the Basque Country contribute to the climate change?

Rajendra Pachauri: -You know, I think when it comes to adaptation to climate change, it has to be based on a specific location and I think the community in every location has to get involved because the impacts of climate change are specific to a particular location. Therefore, if we talk about the Basque Country then it’s absolutely essential that you have to asses what the specific impacts of climate change are going to be and they can only be tackled by the local community.

Now, as far as mitigation is concerned, this is a universal or global problem and I think all of us have to know find ways by which we use energy more efficiently, we cut down emission of greenhouse gases and for doing so we need new technology, or we use the most efficient technologies and we bring about some lifetime changes. So all of this again requires involvement of the community. So, I would say that any region in the world, and particularly something like the Basque region has to know take initiative by which we tackle the problem of climate change.

eitb24.com: -Which is the influence of the human activity on the climate change?

Rajendra Pachauri: -Well, the influence of human activity has been now clearly established by the forecasts as reported by the IPCC and this is not only going to lead to an increase in temperature. It’s already leading to an increase in temperature, but there are also other impacts which are extremely serious: more floods, more droughts, changes in precipitation levels, and certainly in a vegetarian region there is a decline in availability of water because of the decline in rainfall and I suppose that in your part of the world there would also be impacts on forests, on bio-diversity. So, basically, the human impact on the ecosystems of the Earth, on every sector of human activity, have been very serious and that’s now clearly established and that’s why, as in the forecasts has being reported, we’ve made a very strong statement that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that means that there is no doubt left that human actions are impacting the climate of the Earth and we would say in the last 50 years most of the warming that has taken place is very likely a result of human actions.

eitb24.com: -Since you received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, do you think people are less or more concerned about climate change?

Rajendra Pachauri: -I think the Nobel Peace Prize is a very visible award and the whole world gets to find out about it. And I think that the media message of that prize has been the fact that there is obviously a link between climate change and peace because it is after all the peace prize and it’s becoming very clear that if we don’t do anything about climate change then there will be conflict in different parts of the world. That conflict could arise out of scarce resources, water for instance, the impact on agricultural output, you know today we only do have protest demonstrations and riots in different parts of the world because food prices have increased substantially and there is also growing evidence that the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity is going to be downwards in several parts of the world. So, in other words, we are likely to see an unbalance between the bank for food and the supply of food and this will lead to malnutrition, this will lead to lack of supply particularly in the poorest regions of the world and that has clearly the seeds of conflict embedded. So, I think the world is now certainly much more conscious as the result of the Nobel Peace Prize about the seriousness of the climate change and therefore I think that awareness is growing as a result.

eitb24.com: -Which are the main issues the panel on climate change is dealing with at the moment? Would you stand out one of them?

Rajendra Pachauri: -Well, at the moment we are now planning the fifth assessment report and the panel meets in early September. We are also actively involved in outreach the focused assessment report. We are planning how the panel, the IPCC, must define its future, so we are engaged in detailed exercise on that. So, I think this is basically a period of consolidation, of spreading information on the focused assessment report and planning for the future. This is what is taking up most of our time.

eitb24.com: -The Basque Country has specific strategies on climate change What kind of advise can you give us to do it properly?

Rajendra Pachauri: -Well, I am delighted that this is the focus of the Basque Country. What I would say that climate change and the actions that are required to meet the challenge of climate change have to be done by knowledge and this knowledge of course has to be on a global basis but to be most effective it has to be localized. So, if you set up centers, if you’re trying to generate knowledge on climate change, the impacts and mitigation opportunities, that essentially is the best way to meet this major problem of climate change. And I think that if people are informed about what the nature of the problem is and what the possible solutions are, then I think there is a hope that we will find ways of meeting this challenge. So, I’m very happy to learn that you are focusing on knowledge and the creation of knowledge. This, I think is the only answer to meet the problem of climate change and it is the essential first step by which you take action. So I would like to complement you for taking this initiative.