By Zoltán Dujisin
PRAGUE, Oct 2 2007 (IPS)

“The recent rise in global temperatures has been very small in historical comparison, and its impact on man and his activities are basically negligible,” Czech President Vaclav Klaus told a United Nations conference on global warming last week, causing domestic uproar.

Klaus also called on “monopoly” and “one-sidedness” to be removed from the debate on climate change, and proposed the setting up of two parallel inter-governmental panels under the auspices of the UN that would publish competing reports on what he defined as “a political question.”

Klaus was invited to the New York conference by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The conference gave 40 heads of state the chance to deliver five-minute speeches on the topic.

The following day Klaus added that “even this potential problem…can never be solved without relying on freedom, free markets, free trade and other attributes of free society.”

Before his speech at the UN, an ad featuring Klaus appeared in the Washington Post as part of a media campaign against the proponents of the global warming theory.

Published by the conservative UN Heartland Institute, which some environmental groups claim is sponsored by energy-generating companies, the ad features photos of Klaus and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, a proponent of the global warming theory, head to head with the inscription “Freedom, not climate is in danger”.

Klaus has in the past claimed that the “fashionable” environmentalist movement poses a threat to freedom, mostly hinting at the freedom of countries to industrialise themselves.

The press has criticised Klaus for his exclusively economic perspective on climate change. Klaus calls economics the “science par excellence,” and says he understands it in a broad sense of human interactions.

With the Czech Republic aspiring to a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2008-09, Czech officials fear Klaus’ comments will affect Prague’s chances of gaining the votes of island countries endangered by the rising ocean levels.

Czech Deputy PM and junior ruling Green Party leader Martin Bursik, which Klaus has labeled, together with Al Gore, as his enemy in the discussion, said Klaus’ speech had done damage to the Czech Republic’s reputation.

“Such a contradiction between the Czech Republic’s official position and the President’s personal view he presented will not contribute to our reputation,” Bursik said.

However, the minister admitted he expected worse. “Under the burden of isolation the President has slightly moderated his speech.”

Speaking to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty before the conference, Klaus had warned he would deliver a very radical speech at the “gathering of Gore-ites” that had invited him “by mistake”.

Social Democrat opposition leader Jiri Paroubek also criticised Klaus for bringing his private views to the diplomatic arena. “It is not courageous, but silly to deny the man’s responsibility for the processes,” he told journalists.

The day after the speech leading Czech climatologist Jan Pretel held a press conference in which he argued that Klaus had failed to understand the essence of the problem by focusing solely on global warming.

“This is the fundamental misunderstanding of the entire problem which is really not about global warming. There are many proofs today testifying to changes in ecosystems,” Pretel said.

The climatologist promised better communication with Czech media to pre-empt further misunderstandings.

Justin Hyatt from the Czech office of the World Car Free Network environmental group, admits there are indeed many issues at stake, global warming being just one, and says there are enough reasons to take early action.

“Would Mr. Klaus like to deny the reality of the thousands of people who die every month as a direct result of local air pollution?” Hyatt told IPS.

While both the Prime Minister and the President belong to the neo-liberal Civic Democrats (ODS), the ruling party has been forced to govern in a coalition with the Greens, who have shifted the government’s orientation towards more environmental-friendly stances.

The cabinet agreed Jun. 11 on a programme to lower emissions for the next seven years, focusing on car emissions and domestic coal consumption.

In view of the country’s upcoming EU presidency in the first half of 2009, preceded by the French and followed by the Swedish presidencies, the three countries’ leaders met Sep. 13 to concert strategies on climate protection, one of the states’ priorities for their mandates.

Yet the Czech Republic is among the eight Eastern European EU member states who have expressed dissatisfaction with EU plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent by 2050.

The countries claim the EU targets will limit their development vis-à-vis the older members, and have vowed to take legal action against the European Commission for not permitting a sufficient allocation of emissions allowances.

“Unfortunately leaders in the region are usually too preoccupied with generating rapid economic growth, often at the expense of social and environmental issues,” Hyatt told IPS. “But adopting clean technologies only makes sense for these countries as sooner or later it will anyways be necessary.”

Klaus strongly criticised the EU-set goals, but his views do not seem to reflect those of the Czech public.

An EU poll carried out on Jul. 12 showed that 91 percent of Czechs wanted the EU to urgently deal with global warming, a rate surprisingly higher among right-wing than among left-wing supporters.

The poll also showed that a majority of Czechs would prefer to delegate more power to the EU when it comes to issues such as energy policy, research and the environment.

But climate has not hinged on Klaus’ popularity who, according to a recent poll, remains the country’s most trustworthy politician for two-thirds of Czechs.

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