IPS

, NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) - Despite universal clamour for reform, the financial system has gone back to business as usual, as if nothing had happened. In mid-October it was reported that the sum of derivatives, the high-risk financial instrument that set off the crisis, has continued to increase to a total of USD 445 trillion, 6.5 times the gross world product, writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS).

In this analysis, Savio writes that on December 10 leaders of all of the countries of the world will meet in Copenhagen to discuss ways to control climate change. There is still no agreement between the old industrialised countries and newly-industrialised countries like China, India, and Brazil, to finance technological changes that would allow the latter to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without restricting growth.

Without such an agreement, our species and planet is in jeopardy. The cost for the above intervention would be about USD 40 billion, but the rich countries are saying that because of the crisis they cannot afford it. And yet we have seen that in a single day the US came up with USD 182.5 billion to save one company, AIG. As the meeting in Copenhagen approaches, the rich countries should get their priorities straight and assume their share of the responsibility for their planet.

(*) Roberto Savio is founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS).

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//