In 1992, when you met in Rio de Janeiro for the Earth Summit and discussed the impending climate crisis, you took the unprecedented step to legally commit to do all that is necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. Seventeen years on, the world is watching these talks with increasing anxiety . Progress has been disturbingly slow.
Copenhagen is a rare moment of truth, the last chance to avoid destabilisation of states and ecosystems, and save various island nations. It is also the opportunity for a new spirit of unprecedented global cooperation, and a just economic transformation that offers a better life for all.
Will you grasp this once in a lifetime opportunity? Do you feel the weight of generations on your shoulders?
The eyes of the world are on you. Nobody is better placed to deliver the public benefits of effective climate action. Will you be the catalyst for low-carbon development or complicit in climate catastrophe? With just the people to answer to, no higher authority to hide behind and time having run out on us, a fair, ambitious and binding (FAB) new climate deal is your only viable choice.
Some countries have attempted to re-kindle trust and a range of innovative ideas are on the table. South Africa quantified the actions it can undertake to peak emissions. China clearly indicated it doesn’t require financial support to achieve its intensity target. Today, France and Africa advocated innovative sources of public finance that do not depend on long-term allocations by treasuries – like a tax on international financial transactions and taxes on bunker fuels.
So, it is possible! But Chancellor Merkel was right in expressing anxiety about the lack of progress. We worry even more about the lack of substance. Here are crunch issues on which you must deliver:
• Closing the huge gap in ambition by doubling the current proposed aggregate developed country emission reduction targets, to at least 40% below 1990 by 2020;
• Closing the financial gap by providing adequate, immediate financial support for developing country adaptation and emission reduction efforts, and the means to generate long-term public money predictably and at the scale of $200 billion per year by 2020;
• Closing the trust gap by explicitly mandating a legally binding outcome under both negotiating tracks.
For your personal integrity as well as the environmental integrity of the Copenhagen outcome, you should further close the large loopholes and do away with accounting tricks.
Your Excellencies, to risk stating the obvious, all nations have a right to exist: A 2°C world requires a global race to peak emissions, within a 2013-2017 commitment period, that must be driven by industrialised countries; all must join to cut global emissions 80% by 2050; adapting to the impacts of climate change and variability requires resources additional to development assistance; and developing countries need support to embrace a low-carbon economy, while achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Last weekend, people took to the streets with one simple message: Lead or Go Home
Let us translate that into specific actions for some key countries:
USA – we understand the setback caused by a decade of denial. Studies show easily affordable domestic mitigation options by 2020 of at least 18% below 1990. Raise your ambitions.
Germany – by tearing down the walls in the minds of your fellow leaders, you can meet the most existential challenge of the 21st century. A commitment to below 2°C also requires closing the finance gap.
Finland, Austria, Sweden – accounting tricks cannot hide attempts to avoid deep reductions in a key sector at home.
Japan – the world did not expect business as usual after being lifted by your ground-breaking commitment to cut emissions 25% by 2020, a serious long-term commitment to climate funding is needed.
To all leaders from the global South – we understand your misgivings, but we know that only a truly global outcome can avoid further loss and suffering.
ECO wishes you the wisdom and courage for leadership in the spirit of cooperative action.
Copenhagen is a rare moment of truth, the last chance to avoid destabilisation of states and ecosystems, and save various island nations. It is also the opportunity for a new spirit of unprecedented global cooperation, and a just economic transformation that offers a better life for all.
Will you grasp this once in a lifetime opportunity? Do you feel the weight of generations on your shoulders?
The eyes of the world are on you. Nobody is better placed to deliver the public benefits of effective climate action. Will you be the catalyst for low-carbon development or complicit in climate catastrophe? With just the people to answer to, no higher authority to hide behind and time having run out on us, a fair, ambitious and binding (FAB) new climate deal is your only viable choice.
Some countries have attempted to re-kindle trust and a range of innovative ideas are on the table. South Africa quantified the actions it can undertake to peak emissions. China clearly indicated it doesn’t require financial support to achieve its intensity target. Today, France and Africa advocated innovative sources of public finance that do not depend on long-term allocations by treasuries – like a tax on international financial transactions and taxes on bunker fuels.
So, it is possible! But Chancellor Merkel was right in expressing anxiety about the lack of progress. We worry even more about the lack of substance. Here are crunch issues on which you must deliver:
• Closing the huge gap in ambition by doubling the current proposed aggregate developed country emission reduction targets, to at least 40% below 1990 by 2020;
• Closing the financial gap by providing adequate, immediate financial support for developing country adaptation and emission reduction efforts, and the means to generate long-term public money predictably and at the scale of $200 billion per year by 2020;
• Closing the trust gap by explicitly mandating a legally binding outcome under both negotiating tracks.
For your personal integrity as well as the environmental integrity of the Copenhagen outcome, you should further close the large loopholes and do away with accounting tricks.
Your Excellencies, to risk stating the obvious, all nations have a right to exist: A 2°C world requires a global race to peak emissions, within a 2013-2017 commitment period, that must be driven by industrialised countries; all must join to cut global emissions 80% by 2050; adapting to the impacts of climate change and variability requires resources additional to development assistance; and developing countries need support to embrace a low-carbon economy, while achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Last weekend, people took to the streets with one simple message: Lead or Go Home
Let us translate that into specific actions for some key countries:
USA – we understand the setback caused by a decade of denial. Studies show easily affordable domestic mitigation options by 2020 of at least 18% below 1990. Raise your ambitions.
Germany – by tearing down the walls in the minds of your fellow leaders, you can meet the most existential challenge of the 21st century. A commitment to below 2°C also requires closing the finance gap.
Finland, Austria, Sweden – accounting tricks cannot hide attempts to avoid deep reductions in a key sector at home.
Japan – the world did not expect business as usual after being lifted by your ground-breaking commitment to cut emissions 25% by 2020, a serious long-term commitment to climate funding is needed.
To all leaders from the global South – we understand your misgivings, but we know that only a truly global outcome can avoid further loss and suffering.
ECO wishes you the wisdom and courage for leadership in the spirit of cooperative action.
FUENTE:
