Burning our future: Regional report

The world is in the grip of global climate change. Th ousands have perished and countless more have become refugees due to the human-induced impacts of the world’s changing climate. Millions of people are at risk from climate change, mainly the world’s poorest living in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. Our hunger for deriving the majority of our energy from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, has resulted in the dumping of billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2). Industrialised countries bear the main responsibility, but governments of developing countries are also to blame. Rather than avoiding the mistakes of industrialised nations, the governments of developing countries appear intent on repeating them and are being enthusiastically aided by the very countries that have turned their backs on dirty energy in favour of clean, renewable energy. As most of the world’s developed economies rush to exploit clean renewable energy sources like wind, solar and wave power, coal-fi red power generation is rapidly expanding in Asia where booming, power-hungry economies make for rich pickings for companies mostly based in OECD countries who no longer have domestic markets for their dirty technologies.