media advisory
Friends of the Earth International
climate change: governments talk but
don't act
BONN (GERMANY), May 13, 2005 -- A major
United Nations seminar on climate change has
been heavily criticised today by Friends of
the Earth International for failing to
discuss the critical issue of how climate
change should be tackled.
Instead, the conference, which is being
held in Bonn, Germany on 16-17 May 2005, will
be packed with sixty presentations on climate
protection policies.
Friends of the Earth International's
climate campaigner Catherine Pearce said:
“Climate change is the biggest threat the
planet faces. So why are the urgent actions
needed to tackle the problem being ignored by
this UN conference. The alarm bells are
ringing, but the world is dithering. Unless
we act soon it will be too late.”
Agreed at the latest UN climate conference
in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in December 2004,
the seminar has no mandate to open up
negotiations on future commitments beyond
2012 (when the first commitment period
ends).
This conference, or ‘seminar', does not
either have the mandate to make
recommendations to the first Meeting of the
Parties of the Kyoto Protocol in Montreal
later this year. [2]
However this is an unprecedented
opportunity for governments to discuss action
outside of the formal negotiations – domestic
measures to reduce emissions and strategies
to cope with the impacts already being felt
around the world. Friends of the Earth
believes the seminar must go beyond talking
about efforts to meet current targets of the
Kyoto Protocol, which are inadequate to meet
the growing climate challenge. The seminar
must lay the foundations for a formal process
for post 2012 negotiations to be launched in
Montreal.
Future commitments must ensure average
global temperatures do not rise above two
degrees above pre-industrial levels if we are
to avoid catastrophic impacts. [3]
“This seminar should be the place where
industrialised countries show that they are
serious about climate change and ready to
address their historic and ongoing role in
causing the problem. Rich nations must
demonstrate the greatest efforts in reducing
their own emissions, and enable developing
countries to choose climate-friendly
technologies to foster sustainable
development, for example through opening new
international funding streams to drive the
transformation of our global economy. The
huge economic benefits of such “low-carbon”
policies should be showcased here,“ Catherine
Pearce added.
Friends of the Earth also notes with
concern that the poorest and most vulnerable
countries to climate change have lost out in
recent climate negotiations, with little
commitments from the richest countries to
support adaptation to climate change and
support climate-friendly development in poor
countries. These countries desperately
need adequate funds, improved international
development programmes which incorporate
climate change into their design and support
for refugees forced from their home. An
international seminar like this which gathers
experts from around the world should be
addressing these issues.
Friends of the Earth Germany, BUND will be
organising a climate demonstration outside
the seminar at the entrance to the Maritim
Hotel in Bonn on Monday 16 May from
09.00-12.00. The German Minister for the
Environment, Jürgen Trittin will be visiting
the demonstration between 11:40 and
12:00.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT IN
BONN:
Catherine Pearce (Friends of the Earth
International): +44 7811 283 641
Markus Steigenberger (BUND/ Friends of the
Earth Germany): + 49 173-9234747
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] The “Seminar of Governmental Experts”
will take place 16-17 May 2005 in Bonn in
Germany, prior to the regular formal sessions
of the technical bodies UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
[2] Negotiations on future commitments are
due to begin at the next climate talks in
Montreal in November. These negotiations aim
to agree action on climate change for the
period after 2012, when current provisions of
the Kyoto Protocol end.
Past emissions of greenhouse gases,
largely from industrialised countries, mean
that the world cannot avoid an increase of
average global temperature to 1.3°C above
pre-industrial levels. According to the Third
Assessment Report IPCC of 2001, the globally
averaged surface temperature is projected to
increase by 1.4 to 5.8°C over the period 1990
to 2100. We have already seen increases of
0.6°C.
[3] Scientific knowledge is increasing
constantly and improving our understanding of
the likely changes that will come from rising
global temperatures and the assessment keeps
getting worse. Some of the most important new
reports and findings of the last twelve
months include:
-
A multi-year
international study published in Nature
(Thomas, et. al, "Extinction risk from
climate change", NATURE (VOL 427) 8 JANUARY
2004 pp. 146 - 148) predicts that mid-range
climate change scenarios will doom a
million species to extinction by
mid-century;
-
The Arctic Climate Impacts Assessment,
commissioned by the Arctic Council,
confirmed that the Arctic is warming much
faster than the rest of the globe. At least
half of the summer sea ice will disappear
by the end of this century, along with
significant melting of the Greenland ice
sheet, with devastating consequences for
seals, bears, local communities, and with
global consequences including (but not
limited to) sea level
rise;
-
A study of the European heat wave in
the summer of 2003, published in December
2004 (Ref: Stott, et. al., "Human
contribution to the European heatwave of
2003", NATURE (VOL 432) 2 DECEMBER 2004 pp.
610-614), concluded that there was a clear
global warming fingerprint on the killer
heat wave, and that by mid-century, such a
summer would be cooler than average.
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