Transcripts For WHUT Worldfocus 20091210 : vimarsana.com

tonight on worldfocus at the climate conference in copenhagen, a controversy erupts between the rich and poor over a startling new proposal on global warming. from china, a report on efforts there to develop green technology. is china doing more to help or hurt the fight to reduce greenhouse gases? from europe, more in the ongoing debate over public displays of the islamic faith. now the president of france steps into the fray. and from chile, how a group of trouble-shooting hot shots from america s own windy city helped revive that country s economy. meet the chicago boys. from the different perspectives of reporters and analysts from around the globe, this is worldfocus. major support has been provided by rosalind p. walter and the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america s future. mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that s why we re your retirement company.com. and additional funding is provided by the following supporters good evening. and welcome to worldfocus. i m daljit dhaliwal in new york. the word drama isn t one usually associated with international conferences on i>. well, today in copenhagen that all changed. on this, the third day of the climate summit in copenhagen, a controversy has erupted between the rich and poor. the uproar began after the british newspaper the guardian obtained a copy of a proposal called the danish text. that proposal would turn the existing approach to climate change upside down. among other things, it would now allow rich countries to pollute more than the poor. the developing world is reacting furiously with some observers now saying the talks have been thrown into disarray. alan fisher of al jazeera english is in copenhagen, and he has our lead focus tonight. reporter: the idea of harmony of a world moving to agreement in copenhagen has been seriously challenged by the leaked document. the so-called danish text gives to the rich and takes from the poor. among the proposals the u.n. sidelined in future climate change negotiations. the kyoto protocols, the world s only legally binding deal in cutting emissions essentially abandoned. control of climate change finance handed to the world bank with any money to poorer countries tied into specific climate action. and allowing poor countries to emit just under just 1.5 tons of carbon per person by 2050 while allowing rich countries to emit almost twice as much. the world s poest countries say if this was really an offer it s a no. we will not sign an unequitable deal. we will not accept a deal that condemns 80% of the world population to further suffering and injustice. reporter: the controversial document was passed to a british newspaper. this is a leaked document, which comes from denmark as the president of this meeting with the help, we understand, of the uk, of the u.s. and other rich countries, and it s a draft text which they intend to put in front of world leaders when ey arrive next week. it does not include many figures for reductions and things. on every level it seems to be unsatisfactory. reporter: this document may be a strategic leak to influence discussions. what is clear, if the final proposals are anything like this, there s virtually no chance of an agreement. reminders of this climate change summit are all over copenhagen. it s winter here but milder than normal. and weather forecasters say that will become more common. the research indicates a rise in global temperatures which shows no sign of ending. and the decade since the turn of the century is shaping up to be the warmest in recorded history. besides this message, we also wanted to get indications on highlights of what happened last year. many parts of the world were hit by drought or heat wave or flood. so unfortunately, extreme events are likely tget more frequent and for some more intens the global warming. reporter: if the world s richest countries believe the danish text would become the basis for an agreement, they perhaps misjudged just what others were willing to accept. it s a serious threat to international cooperation and united action. copenhagen may still be historic, but maybe not for the reasons everyone hoped. imate summit in copenhagen. the china is one of the countries objecting to that proposed plan that you just heard about. china is now the world s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and no climate deal will be reached without its cooperation. but china is also influencing the global climate debate in other ways. it controls the world s largest deposits of so-called rare earth metals crucial to the development of green technology. bu;áá>:)qp) in this report from lindsey hilsum of itn, the chinese seem intent on keeping most of the economic benefits for themselves. reporter: it doesn t look very green. rare earth processing in china is a messy, dangerous, polluting business. it uses toxic chemicals, acid, sulfates, ammonia. the workers have little or no protection. but without rare earth, copenhagen means nothing. you buy a prius hybrid car and think you re saving the planet, but each motor contains a kilo of neodimium and and each battery more than ten kilos of lanthanum, rare earth metals from china. green campaigners love wind turbines, but the permanent magnet used to manufacture a three-megawatt turbine contains some two tons of rare earth. the authorities gave us a dvd of baiyun ebo in inner mongolia, where most of the world s rare earth is mined along with iron ore. they wouldn t let us film it ourselves. but about 100 miles away we found the frozen tailing lake, where rare earth mixes with mud, waiting for processing at nearby factories. technologies we all use like computers, mobile phones and energy-saving light bulbs use rare earth processed here. deal or no deal at copenhagen, there s going to be an increased demand for wind turbines both inside china and outside. but what the chinese want to ensure is that they re not just providing the essential raw materials, the rare earths, and doing the manufacturing, but that they also have access to the most advanced low carbon technologies. we were shown plans for what they re calling the silicon valley of rare earth, a high-tech industrial park in baotou to attract international investors. this year there was an outcry when the chinese said they would restrict the export of rare earth to conserve their supplies and to make foreign companies produce their high-end technologies here in china. translator: although china has the largest reserves, we only have 50% of global deposits. we re supplying too much rare earth, and it s not sustainable. so we must restrict export. reporter: at a rare earth conference in hong kong, the talk is of how to reduce dependence on china, which achieved 95% dominance by undercutting other producers. if the purpose is to lower our dependence on foreign oil and all we re doing is asking that we put hybrid cars on the road that need chinese rare earth materials, aren t we just changing, intertrading one dependence for another? reporter: the writing on the wall says become the leader of the world in rare earth industry, but china can t produce enough for everyone anymore, and if government is serious about low carbon technology, other countries will have to start producing. i think that if we don t get a couple of projects up and running very, very quickly, there s going to be a very severe shortage of rare earths in the world and all of these clean energy technologies that we re legislating and trying to implement through policy changes are not going to be possible. reporter: at copenhagen politicians talk of cutting carbon emissions, but they can t meet any targets without rare earth. and that means a sustainable supply and not all from china. lindsey hilsum, channel 4 news, baotou. for more on the rare ear issue and the controversy in copenhagen, we re joined by scott barrett, a professor at columbia university. professor, thank you very much for joining us on the program. thank you for having me. so we just saw in that story about rare metals used to make green technology. that market is controlled by china. what does that mean for countries which are trying to develop alternative sources of energy? i think the basic point is that climate change will touch on everyone s lives, every economy, every country, and addressing climate change will also have impacts for every country.ñ÷%w change? the basic architecture of this agreement looks at what the world ought to do collectively to deal with the problem, and countries will agree on what they ought to do collectively because there s no requirement that any countries do anything individually. but as they disaggregate the obligations as they do in this leaked document between rich and poor countries, that s where the tensions start to arise because the document says that the poorer countries will need to start to reduce their emissions towards 2050. and that means it may bite on their development, and that s something they re going to care very much about. so what dyou think will come out of the climate conference and what are your main concerns also? wp, one of the a document will have to come out because so many reputations are at stake. and the document that will be produced will not be legally binding. now, that actually means less than you might think because kyoto protocol was a legally binding document and it also has not worked. i think the biggest challenge is to address the key missing component of that protocol which is also missing in this draft document, and that s a measure tone force what it is that countries agree they will do. and neither document addresses that enforcement problem. well, how might agreement, if indeed reached, affect our daily lives, mine and yours? well, we re probably going to see this tension unfolding toward the implementation, where the legislation is passed in individual countries, whether countries are doing their fair shares. as this gets implemented, you re going to have implications like those that were highlighted in the early report that will involve higher costs for things, new technologies, also a of side benefits that will come along with these irrespective of climate change. but there will be if we succeed, it will be a global transformation. okay, scott barrett, thank you very much for your insights. thank you. and that brings us to tonight s how you see it. our question, do you think the world will ever be able to reach a deal on climate change or are conferences like copenhagen doomed to failure? you can tell us what you think by going to the how you see it section of our website at worldfocus.org. american officials said today that five young men from washington, d.c., who vanished last month have been detained in pakistan. one of the men had left behind a farewell video saying that muslims should be defended, featuring pictures of american casualties. the fbi has been looking for the men since their families reported them missing. both american and pakistani officials are refusing to comment on why the group had traveled to pakistan. you may remember last week we reported on a controversial vote in switzerland which banned the building of muslim minarets, those tall towers which are the distinguishing feature of mosques. now the president of france, nicolas sarkozy, has waded into the fray. writing in the french newspaper lemo monde, sarkozy expressed surprise at the wdespread outrage over the swiss dision. he wrote, instead of condemning the swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what so many people in europe feel. he went on to say, all believers, regardless of their faith, must refrain from ostentation and provocation and practice their religion in humble discretion. one of the underlying concerns about t muslim community in countries like france is that many muslims in europe are recent immigrants. throughout europe immigration has emerged as a hot-button issue. but tonight we want to go beyond the headlines. we traveled to sweden to a place where immigrants are welcomed with open arms. port our partner deutsche welle visits the city of sodertalje to reveal the secrets of this swedish success story. reporter: celestine s been running her own hair salon for three years. right now extensions are in strong demand. celestine started out braiding dreadlocks on the street. since she opened her own shop, african stylists come to sodertalje. translator: as a black woman with my own shop, i m very popular here in sodertalje. you have to feel good about yourself, and then you ll make it. for me, there is no kenya or sweden or america. my home is called celestine. reporter: immigrants are given a warm welcome in sweden. sodertalje is a good point. ár e the country. one reason to feel at home here is the comprehensive social welfare system. you actually would like to be a mother here, if i have to. because it s very easy. they take care of the keep and education and the health. reporter: immigrants are legally obliged to learn swedish. children are given extra lessons so they can keep up at school. the sodertalje region is an affluent part of sweden and home to large companies in need of skilled workers. but the swedish government says that the example set by sodertalje isn t being followed by other eu states. translator: there are lots of countries that have no experience in taking in refugees. sweden will definitely take action during its eu presidency. reporter: the mayor of sodertalje says a more liberal migration policy should apply across the eu. translator:e re happy taking in migrants, but in the z meantime, too many people want to come to our small town of sodertalje. the entire european union should be ashamed at the asylum policy it s currently pursuing. reporter: this is a skilled immigrant who settled in sweden. she worked as a interpreter. but she said it took a while to get a foothold in the country. translator: when i first came here, i felt most at ease among other migrants. even though they weren t my relatives, they were from the same country as me. when you re displaced due to war or hunger, you don t see the many new opportunities at first. reporter: she lives in a suburb of stockholm with swedish neighbors. she s now used to life here and says she s become swedish in her ways. it s the result of migrant-friendly communities lie which put the focus of immigration onto integration. what economic crisis? that s what people were asking last night in london. in one of the season s most anticipated art auctions, a portrait by the dutch master rembrandt fetched a record price for the artist, selling for over $32 million. the painting hasn t been seen in public in 40 years. a work by the renaissance artist raphael went for even more. this drawing sold for over $47 million, double its presale estimate. that, too, set a record. in this case, it was the most money ever paid for a work on paper. last night s auction in london was perhaps yet another sign of the flush times which have returned to the financial services industry. often it has been high rollers in finance who have driven the market for expensive art. today, the head of britain s treasury said it was time that bankers there give something to the government. he announced a one-time bonus tax on year-end bonuses above $40,000 given to bankers. in britain, like here, anger over such bonuses runs high after a government bailout of the industry. and that brings us to tonight s signature story. one country that has weathered the economic storm better than many is the south american nation of chile. some credit chile s economic revival to a group of troubleshooting economists from america s own windy city worldfocus special correspondent edie magnus traveled to chile earlier this year to meet the chicago boys. reporter: a commercial seaport in chile filled with the hustle and bustle of goods coming in and going out. this soft-spoken prossor of economics is very proud of his role in making that happen. rolf luders helped chile open itmarkets to the world. as part of a team known around the country as the chicago boys. the first chicago boys were, i think, in 56 or 57. reporter: so named for where they did graduate work, the university of chicago. where they studied the doctrines of privatization and free markets under its nobel prize-winning economist milton fryman.yde:çz those first chicago boys were academics, said luders. until 1973. when chile s president salvador allende was overthrown in a military coup and the man who ousted him, strongman augusto pinochet overturned the country s centralist economy. they turned around and said, who can help us? reporter: suddenly the chicago boys were putting theory into practice. what the chicago boys did is to transform the centralized economy we had in 1973 into a modern market economy. reporter: empowered by a dictator and moved into key positions of government, they had an unprecedented ability to take ideas learned in america and use them to reshape the chilean economy. and their primary mission was to get the government out of the business of owning businesses. they denationalized the auto industry and telecommunication, sold most of the country s copper rights to private companies and eliminated government price controls on chile s goods. reforms that have stayed largely intact ever since. u.s. figures show chile now has one of the most open trading regimes in the world. economist thomas flores says that s because they found free market principles work no matter what politicians are in office. we have right now socialist government. that replaced a democratic military. military government. maybe next one will be a libertarian one. and many of the policies are the same. reporter: economist tomas flores says that s because free market principles have proven themselves here. we want to create the land of opportunity. we want to be rich. we want to be just a little like americ reporter: several waves of chicago boys worked for pinochet over the years. luders is among many economists who say their policies worked. chile s crippling inflation rate, reportedly 350% or more, was brought down to just 20% by 1989. it is currently around 4%. the poverty rate, which at its worst stood at 46%, was cut at more than half and is now at 14%. chile today is by some economic measures the most prosperous nation in south america. in chile, well, we had the strong government and the strong government was willing to run this risk of freeing the economy and seeing what would happen. rong government is one way of putting it. brutal dictatorship is another. chile s wall of names lists some of the thousands of political opponents murdered, tortured or exiled by pinochet. did you have any qualms about to be quite frank, i never liked this the the the well, dictatorship. we didn t like that much. but on the other hand, it was clear to us that unless you changed the econic system, the social economic system, we would never have a democracy. see, so the only way to democracy was to change the system. and pinochet in that sense was an instrument of this desire to change the economic system so that eventually we get a working democracy. that government committed tremendous atrocities that are unforgivable and you cannot justify ever on the basis of this or that economic policy. reporter: still, finance minister andres velasco, whose only father was among those exiled by pinochet, says as many chileans reviled the dictator, it did not make sense to undo everything he put in place. we worked hard in chile to make sure that never happened ds again. that s why we re so keen on developing and consolidating the institutions of democracy, not starting from scratch, not reinventing everything every day but saying this is an achievement,e will keep it, this is a mistake we will change. reporter: today there s a new generation of chicago boys. but at least one of them is running from the name. being a chicago boy is something that you don t want to be in general. i was there for five years. reporter: economist esteban puentes has the degree. but says he s not the friedman acolyte his predecessors were. approach to governing went too far. they were too too blind by the ideology. and they didn t realize that in general, in the actual market, there are some problems. i think that there is a lot of room for the state to regulate. reporter: in several areas of policy the current center left administration here is doing just that. but rolf luders believes when the economic history of chile is written and he s writing one, by the way the chicago boys chapter will come out on the positive side of the ledger. radical change in the economic system has allowed this country to prosper. our trend was down and down and down and down. and our trend is up now. reporter: for worldfocus, this is edie magnus in santiago, chile. and that is worldfocus for this wednesday. but don t forget, there is plenty more news and perspective at worldfocus.org. i m daljit dhaliwal in new york. from me and the rest of the team, thank you for joining us. we hope to see you back here at the same time tomorrow. we hope to see you back here at the same time tomorrow. until then, good-bye. captions by vitac www.vitac.com major support has been prrosalind p. walter and the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america s future. mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement product. that s why we re your retirement company.com. and additional funding is provided by the following supporters