An eminent expert on climate change said that climate is not getting the attention it deserved while economic growth hides the presence of poverty and that climate change adversely affects the poor and the whole world would have to pay a heavy price if nothing is done now to mitigate carbon emissions.

Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Mohan Munasinghe said the world is facing multiple issues on sustainable development; poverty, scarce resources, degradation of the environmental and latest, the global economic crisis.

"So far governments have spent US$ 4 trillion on reviving economies caused by the global financial crisis. About US$ 100 billion is spent on poverty eradication. Spending for the environment has amounted to only a few billion dollars," Prof Munasinghe said.

He was addressing delegates from more than 20 Asian Countries now in Colombo to deliberate on the region’s stand on climate change ahead of a UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December to finalize a new agreement on climate change as the Kyoto Protocol is due to expire in 2012.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international and legally binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions (greenhouse gas emissions) worldwide entered into force on February 2005. But the desired results are far from being realized.

Developed countries have been given targets to cut carbon emissions while developing countries have not been set targets because of their economic-growth needs.

However, developed countries are exhorted to look for new environment friendly technologies, especially in power generation and make them more affordable to developing countries.

This is while knowledge and funding are readily transferred so that developing countries do not have to follow the industrialization route to development and avoid repeating the mistakes of developed countries.

A mechanism has been created whereby excessive carbon emissions of developed countries could be traded with developing countries.

However, progress is slow in terms of reducing greenhouse gases (which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) calls "dangerous" human interference with the climate system) because of the emphasis placed on economic growth, particularly through industrialization.

"Growth hides the presence of poverty and this creates a social bubble. Climate change will make the poor more vulnerable and they need to be protected. In the case of the environment bubble, we will have to pay a higher price later if the warning signs are unheeded," Prof Munasinghe said.

He said it was the responsibility of developed countries to mitigate carbon emissions and develop green technologies.

According to the UNFCCC, the heaviest burden for fighting climate change is on industrialized nations.

"They are the source of most past and current greenhouse gas emissions. These countries are asked to do the most to cut what comes out of smokestacks and tailpipes, and to provide most of the money for efforts elsewhere," the UNFCCC says.

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Britain’s Deputy High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Mark Gooding, said his government would look for an ambitious deal at the Copenhagen Conference, one which would be fair by the developing countries and give them a voice.

"We will cut out carbon emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 and we will follow a ‘follow me’ dynamic when dealing with the issue of climate change and sustainable development," he said.

Developing countries accuse developed countries of trying to force them into cutting carbon emissions at the expense of economic growth.

"In Asia over a billion people do not have electricity and energy demands are expected to more than double by 2020. So renewable energy is the key and the developed world will have to invest in newer technologies and they will be more affordable when the technology becomes efficient," he said.

He said the G20 leaders had also pledged to adopt climate change policies into strategies aimed at taking the world out of the global economic crisis.