PROF. DR. ANİL MARKANDYA: “OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS ON CLIMATE CHANGES”
Scientist came together at Izmir University of Economics for the third of the conference, the first of which had taken place 3 years ago in İzmir and the second of which was organized in New York. In the conference entitled “Current Economical Developments in the Globalizing World”, SUNY Cortland Campus Head of Department of Economics Prof. Dr. Tim Phillips and Izmir University of Economics Rector Prof. Dr. Attila Sezgin made the opening speeches. Sezgin said, “The inability of technological development to alleviate poverty and hunger in places of need remains an issue of considerable embarrassment for individuals and governments. At this point in the 21st century, the media are currently focusing on the issues of social unrest and hunger caused by rising food prices. Many economical problems concerning the world mainly, the impact of climate change on economics will be discussed in this conference.”
After the opening speeches Prof. Dr. Anil Markandya, who has won Nobel Peace Prize with the team of former USA Vice President Al Gore, made a speech. Markandya who gives lectures in Bath University in the UK made a speech about the impact of climate changes in globalization and trade. At the beginning of his speech, Markandya underlined the changes in climate and said, “The most important thing that differentiates climate change from other problems is the uncertainty of its effects in the future. For example, a change for 2 degrees in climate will make the world a different place; I do not know how we will survive in a change for 6-7 degree. The effects of climate change will be experienced in 50-100 years later but precautions should be taken right now.”
Markandya emphasized that carbon emissions must surely be decreased and said, “There may occur big disasters if carbon emission goes up to 650-750 ppm. Until 2020, carbon emission must be decreased 30%, and until 2050, it must be decreased 60%.” Prof. Dr. Anil Markandya also stated that clean coal, lighting with low energy, sun and wind energy prices were still so high and said, “For more livable environment, these prices must be abolished. Quota must be implemented for industries that use carbon in order to prevent carbon leakage. However, all these precautions must be taken with the common participation of all the countries in the world.”
Markandya also stated that the applications in quotas effected trade directly and said, “The USA makes export for 207 billion dollars from EU countries. If 10% of quota is implemented, there will be a loss of 2.3% in export and 10.2% in import. These numbers are high for the USA however, if no one cares for the environment very serious dangers await the world. Our future depends on international agreements on climate change. All the countries must abide by these agreements.”
Markandya added that there were some works about using lignite sources, hydroelectric power plants, sun and wind energy in recent years in Turkey however, these works were not enough. After the conference, IUE Rector Prof. Dr. Attila Sezgin and Vice Rector Oğuz Esen presented a plaquette to Anil Markandya.
At the 3rd International Conference on Economics, 39 parallel presentations took place from 10 different countries like South Korea, Iran, Russia and France.
