2. 职称英语
  3. The issue of climate change is now very, very critical indeed. Let me try an

The issue of climate change is now very, very critical indeed. Let me try an

游客2023-12-25  29
问题     The issue of climate change is now very, very critical indeed. Let me try and explain to you frankly what I see, from the policy-makers point of view, as the two difficulties we’ve got to overcome and how we overcome them. //
    The first is that I think there is a clear recognition round the world now that something is happening to our climate—people are experiencing it and feeling it. Nonetheless, the timeframe over which some of these things are going to impact is certainly beyond any very short-term political cycle, and often stretches significantly into the future. That’s one issue. //
    And the other issue is that there has grown up round the world, a debate, that sometimes I think takes place on a quite false basis but nonetheless is there, that somehow there is a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection, so that if we improve the protection of our environment, we may inhibit our ability to grow and to enjoy rising living standards. //
    Now each of these two issues has to be confronted. How do we do that, is the real question. The first is how do we get the world to think long-term about this? We have to continue to build a very strong base of support and agitation for change, not just in the political world but in civic society as well. I think that is enormously important, the pressure on this has got to come on governments from people, not merely on governments from their own internal mechanisms. //
    We are committed to the Kyoto Protocol. We believe it is essential that we have that implemented. We in our country will abide by our Kyoto targets, but I just want to make one point to you. When I asked for an analysis to be done by David King and his colleagues of what the true scale of the challenge was, we learned that even if we were to implement the Kyoto Protocol, it falls significantly short of what we will need over the next half century if we are to tackle this problem seriously and properly. //
    So even, and this is a tall order in some ways at the moment, if we succeed in getting support for the Kyoto Protocol, we are still, even having done that, only in the position of having achieved a first step. It will be an important recognition, but it is only a first step and we need to be building a clearer understanding of the fact that even with Kyoto we are still a long way short of what we actually need to do. And we’ve got to build support in the political institutions of which we’re a part in order to make sure that case is properly understood. //
    I think we have to make sure that this occupies, as an issue, a central place in political decision-making beyond any election or parliamentary cycle. It’s beyond the life of any government. It’s beyond the life of any passing political phase. It has to be there, central in the politics of each country, built up not just from support within government, but from support within civic society over a period of time. //
    The second point is about the conflict between the supposition that we need to grow continually and that we cannot grow unless we degrade our environment. That is the importance of a Climate Group that involves not just states and cities but also business so that there are practical, clear examples of how good environmental policy is also good business policy and is right for growth. If you look in the 12 years 1990 to 2002, we in Britain cut our emissions by about 15 percent whilst we were growing at 30 percent. It is possible to do. //
    Showing that cities and states and businesses can do good environmental policy and actually reap an economic benefit is enormously important because that debate about some supposed trade- off between environmental protection and economic growth is still there. We may all, in this room, believe that that argument has been resolved long ago, but I can tell you there is a large part of business and many countries that still see that trade-off existing. //
    (Excerpts from UK Prime Minister’s speech on climate change delivered on April 27, 2004)
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答案     气候变化现在的确是一个至关重要的问题让我从一个决策者的角度，开诚布公地跟大家讲一讲在我看来需要克服的两大困难，并探讨一下我们该如何克服这些困难。//
    国际社会已经清楚地认识到，气候正经历着一场变化——人们正在经历并已感受到了这种变化。然而．这些气候变化将会在一定时间内产生影响，这一时间范围必然超越任何一届政府的短暂任期，而常常延伸到久远的未来这是第一个问题。//
    另一个问题是一场辩论正在世界范围内兴起，尽管我有时觉得这场辩论是在一个错误的基础上展开，但它的确存在着，似乎在经济增长和环境保护之间存在着一种相互制约的关系，因此，为了加强环境的保护，我们也许就得抑制经济的增长和生活水平的提高。//
    这两个问题我们都得面对。问题是，我们应当如何去面对? 首先，我们怎样才能让国际社会长远的去考虑这个问题?我们不仅需要在政界，还应在公民社会中建立一个强有力的、能支持和激励变化的基础我认为政府的压力应该来自于人民而不只是来自于政府的内部机制，这一点是极为重要的。//
    我们郑重承诺遵守《京都议定书》，而且相信让《京都议定书》得到实施是一项刻不容缓的任务。英国将遵守自己的京都目标，但有一点我想说明：当我要求大卫?金和他的同事们提供一份有关气候变化的挑战到底有多大的分析报告时，我得知，如果我们要在下半个世纪认真而妥善地解决环境问题，即使实施了《京都议定书》也是远远不够的。//
    所以从目前看来，《京都议定书》在某种程度上要求苛刻，但即使我们能成功地获得人们对《京都议定书》的支持，我们也只不过是走出了第一步。虽然会得到广泛的认可，但这仅仅是第一步。我们需要更清醒地认识到这样一个事实：那就是我们需要做的远不止《京都议定书》规定的目标。作为国际政治体系中的一份子，我们需要在该体系内建立支持，以确保人们能够正确理解这一事实。//
    我想我们应当确保气候变化作为一个议题在政治决策中占有核心地位，它比任何选举和议会换届都来得重要。其地位超越了任何一届政府的任期、超越了任何一个稍纵即逝的政治时期。它必须是所有国家的首要政治议题，不仅得到政府的支持，而且要逐渐得到公民社会的支持。//
    第二点有关两个假设之间的矛盾：一是我们需要不断地发展；其次是我们的发展必须以破坏环境为代价，对于气候集团来说重要的是不仅要有国家和城市的参与，还要有企业的参与，这样就会产生明确而务实的范例，即好的环境政策同样也会是好的商业政策，而且有利于经济的增长。你们可以看一下在1990年到2002年这12年问，英国的排放量减少了15%，但经济却增长了30%，这是可以做到的。//
    有关经济增长和环境保护相互制约的争论还在继续，所以向人们展示城市、国家和企业可以在制定有效的环境政策的同时获得经济效益就显得至关重要了。也许在座的很多人都认为这场争论在很久以前已经有了定论。但事实是，相当一部分企业和很多国家仍然认为经济增长和环境保护之间的这种相互制约是存存在。//
    (节选自英国首相于2004年4月27日就环境变化所做的讲话)
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