What has shocked mt is the extent of lobbying or the fear of lobbying by world leaders.. Before the commencement of the Summit, Mr Barrack Obama proclaimed that he would change the way U.S. was conducting its business, Throughout, he was not able to keep up his promise. He behaved in the same way Mr Bush approached Global Warming.
What is global warming? It is caused by rise in levels of carbon di-oxide in the atmosphere, resulting in raisingi global temparatures to dangerous levels.As a result, it is feared that this will lead to melting of glaciers,rise in sea levels and change in climate patterns. The Conference in Copanehagen is being held to fix enhanced emission reduction targets for all countries, more particularly rich countries. The Conference has resulted in a big failure. It is unfortunate that the recession and financial crisis preceded the conference. The attention of world leaders was fixed more towards these earlier problems, They are more worried about employment figures and banking crisis.
Why did America behave the way it did? It is because of fear of lobbying.
What is lobbying?, Lobbying is the practice of influencing decisions made by the Government. It includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials,whether by other legislators,constituents or organised groups.We can find very high level of lobbying in Nobel Committee recommendations or Oscar Awards. Amir Khan paid through his nose for the lobbying he had done for Lagan at Oscars
.
In the beginning, Obama had promised to cut GHG emissions by 17 percent by 2020. Later he realised that he will face difficulties having the same ratified in the Senate. Last time Kyoto Protocol was negotiated by Al Gore,but it was rejected by 95-0 by the Senate. Why? It is because of lobbying. USA has too many big lobbies that are willing to spend over 300 million dollars a year to maintain status quo This includes a Coal Lobby that has influence in 22 out of 50 states. Besides, there are oil,( supported in a big way by George Bush) automobile and highway lobbies, The rejection by the Senate led to Mr Gore producing a documentary called "Inconvenient Truths". For this effort, he was given a shared Nobel Peace Prize for spreading awareness about Global Warming.
Decisions which will have to be made in the interest of future generations are not taken because of the influence of lobbyists. Is it not an irony?.Very rarely, lobbyists work for a cause; mostly they work for money. In USA and other countries, they make big money. Times of India has called Copenhagen as "Flopenhagen". It would appear that it will take a long time before emergence of a legally binding treay.
We witnessed extra-ordinary lobbying in India recently. To initiate Impeachment Proceedings against Justice Dinakaran, Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, 75 signatures of Members of Parliament was required to be placed before the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. According to me. a judge should resign once people start suspecting his integrity. Even if the allegations are false, I feel Mr Dinakaran should have resigned. There is a saying "Caesar!s wife should not only be chaste, but should also appear to be chaste". Appearances are important. Now a group of Dalit MPs are championing the cause of Justice Dinakaran. This again is a result of lobbying by people close to the Judge.
Is lobbying good or bad?. I leave it for you to decide.
Just as I am about to complete the write-up, I have read about the lobbying being done in BJP for top vacant spots in the Party.
V.K.Balasubramanian
20th December 2009
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