Climate change: urgent action and robust policies must match dire warnings
Friends of the Earth International Press Release
Date: 9 November 2007
Climate change: urgent action and robust policies must match dire warnings
On 12-17 November a synthesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) will be adopted and approved by governments in
Valencia, Spain.
Friends of the Earth International climate campaigner Joseph Zacune said:
"The IPCC has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are facing an
emergency situation and that tackling climate change is critical if we
are to safeguard the survival of humanity. People in developing
countries will be hit the hardest. However, we must ensure that these
dire warnings translate into urgent action and that the policies to
tackle them are sufficiently robust. The UN talks in Bali this December
must begin to outline a post-2012 Kyoto agreement that establishes
targets and timetables for radical emissions reductions particularly for
industrialised nations. We need adaptation programs that will provide
relief for the vulnerable communities and build resilience to climate
change impacts.
“It's time for climate justice. Wealthy nations which have benefited
economically by polluting the most must finance developing countries’
adaptation and mitigation costs. We need genuine solutions including,
large scale investment in energy efficiency in buildings and transport,
clean renewable energy such as solar and wind, lifestyle changes and the
conservation of our world's forests. These measures must be urgently
carried out without resorting to false solutions such as agrofuels and
risky technology such as nuclear power.”
The IPCC findings provide a mandate to halt environmentally destructive
practices often promoted in the name of development as such practice
will increase the vulnerability of communities in the global South to
the impacts of climate change. Friends of the Earth believes that UN
climate change negotiations must expand its influence over global
economic and development policies to ensure that actions to mitigate and
adapt to climate change under the UNFCCC are not undermined.
A range of mitigation and adaptation efforts are required, including
changes in lifestyle and unsustainable consumption patterns mainly in
the rich, developed countries that have accumulated an ecological debt
to poor communities in the global South. Historical per capita emissions
and capacity to act have been neglected during negotiations. Therefore,
for a post-2012 regime to be fair and equitable, there must be agreement
on the burden-sharing principles between the North and South to avoid a
climate catastrophe.
Tackling climate change will not be successful by selecting certain
technologies whilst carrying on a business-as-usual approach to fossil
fuel extraction and high-carbon lifestyles. Sustainable clean renewable
energy technologies are proven, can reduce emissions and remove
dependency from fossil fuels.
Governments need to promote measures that allow us to achieve
sustainable societies by, for example, supporting community control over
energy resources, the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies and shifting
investment to clean energy. The promotion of biofuels - more accurately
known as agrofuels - is causing massive environmental and social damage
from Colombia and Brazil to Indonesia and Malaysia. Forests are being
cut down and indigenous people driven off their land to make way for
corporate-run plantations that expropriate land and water resources.
Agrofuels are being perversely promoted as a solution to climate change
while the draining of peat lands and cutting down of tropical forests
for their cultivation is releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere.
Notes to editor
This synthesis report has taken six years to compile, draws on research
over 2,500 scientific experts from over 130 countries and should shock
the world into taking urgent action to reduce global emissions.
This synthesis report includes the core findings of the three volumes
published this year. The first part, which focused on science, was
published on 2 February 2007 in Paris. The second part, published on 6
April 2007 in Brussels, focused on impacts and showed that the world's
poorest people will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change. The
third, published in Bangkok, 4 May 2007 focused on technologies to
mitigate climate change. On 12-17 2007 November these synthesised
reports will be adopted and approved by governments.
CONTACTS
Friends of the Earth will have the following spokespeople available.
IN SPAIN:
José Carlos Puentes, Energy and Climate change campaigner, Friends of
the Earth Spain. Attending parallel NGOs meetings in Madrid from Mon 12
– Wed 14 Nov, then in Granada Thu 15 and Fri 16 Nov:
Alexandra Hemingway, President of Friends of the Earth Spain. She is
based in Mallorca, but will be in Valencia on Thursday 15 November 2007
at a parallel meeting for NGOs during the day and at the 5 minute
blackout in the main square at 8pm. The blackout is being organised by a
coalition of environmental and other groups to draw attention to the
need for action on climate change.
To arrange interviews, please call Friends of the Earth Spain press
officers: Esther Varela Arbones +34-680 936 327 or Lawrence Sudlow
+34-667 473 193. Office Tel: +34 91 306 99 00 or +34-902 366 311 .
medios@tierra.org
IN LONDON
Joe Zacune, Friends of the Earth International climate campaigner: Until
Nov. 11 reachable on Swaziland mobile number + 268 663 4740 and from Nov
11 on UK mobile number +44-7967 877 593. Friends of the Earth media
team, Tel 020 7566 1649
IN COLOMBIA
Juana Camacho Otero, Friends of the Earth International climate campaigner (for interviews in Spanish): In Colombia on + +57-13377709 or mobile: + 30124220778
