We know climate change; we do not know climate change. The international discussions on climate change had started years before the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or the Rio Summit) was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. However, since the Rio Summit, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was worked out, discussing the changing climate has become a global pastime.

We have strong views, strong observations. When floods come, droughts strike or fires rage, we see climate change in it. At the same time we fail to see the linkage between international climate change negotiations and many of our local environmental developments.

The issue of climate change divides us all. There are climate sceptics who deny that climate change is happening. There are climate alarmists who proclaim apocalypse at the slightest excuse. Continue reading →