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We can reduce our use of fossil fuels
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From Daniel Wimberley.
THE Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, the Scrutiny panels on aid and, according to the Overseas Aid annual report, the majority of the Council of Ministers all now agree that Jersey should fulfil the UN target of 0.7% of gross national income to be given in overseas aid.
The acceptance of this target is a huge step forward and should be followed up by some action, the question being, how do we find the money?
Here is one way of finding the money in a way that benefits our economic future, helps to secure the future of the planet and helps the poor of the world at the same time.
We have in any event to adopt firm policies for cutting our consumption of fossil fuels due to the need to prevent runaway climate change (see www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/globalwarming-faq.html and the need to remain competitive at a time of rapidly rising fuel costs due to peak oil (see www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net).
We then allocate some of the savings to overseas aid. There is a certain poetic justice in this, in that by cutting our excessive consumption we enable others to raise their standard of living by starting to consume enough.
The need to move in this direction has already been accepted in the Council of Ministers’ document Keeping Jersey Special, which states on page 24: ‘The strategies to support this (so showing that economic and environmental success can work together) are to reduce per capita consumption of resources, to reduce per capita production of waste, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions …’
Another way to reach the target is to encourage Islanders to donate their talents. There have been two examples of this in recent weeks: the dentist in central Asia and the medical help given as part of a recent aid work party.
A skills exchange programme could be highly effective and would count towards the target, and we already have people doing it.
We need to take action speedily, as we currently allocate just 0.2% of our GNI, placing us next to Guernsey and the United States as one of the lowest givers on earth.This is a great shame, as it simply does not reflect the great support among many Islanders for those unfortunate enough to be at the receiving end of the world’s economic see-saw.
A final footnote: Overseas aid is not the whole story. A globally responsible Island will look at its government procurement policy and the investments of its pension fund and the activities of its largest industry in the light of ethical concerns.
2 La Hougue Mauger,
St Mary.
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