28
Jan 2009 - Brussels, Belgium – New European
proposals for this year’s crucial Copenhagen
climate conference contain “some rhetoric
in the right direction” but need to put
forward more concrete commitments and accept
a larger role in helping developing nations
reduce their emissions and adapt to climate
impacts, WWF said today.
In today's communication
towards a comprehensive climate change agreement
in Copenhagen, the European Commission proposes
how the EU should negotiate a global climate
deal at the UN talks in December. EU Heads
of Government intend to finalize the EU’s
position at the Spring Council in March.
“Europe needs to stop
anticipating what the rest of the world
might do and concentrate on what Europe
should do if it wants to reclaim the reputation
of leading in the fight against climate
change,” said Kim Carstensen, leader of
WWF’s New Global Deal on Climate initiative.
“Europe's starting points
have to be its own stated objective of a
world staying below the average 2 °C
warming that is the threshold level for
unacceptable risks, and the 25-40 per cent
cuts in emissions by 2020 that developed
countries need to achieve to stay within
this margin of safety.”
WWF said Europe needed
to go beyond restoring previous commitments
to reduce emissions by 30 per cent over
11000 levels by 2020, and commit to achieving
these reductions in emissions in Europe
- with funds to be provided to developing
nations for them to achieve emissions reductions
equivalent to a further 15 per cent of Europe's
level of emissions.
WWF described money
on the table as “the make or break issue”
for developing nations to substantially
reduce their emissions as well.
“Existing and proposed
emissions trading initiatives need to be
supplemented by measures such as emissions
performance standards for Europe's power
stations,” said Mr Carstensen. “US States
like California were beginning to demonstrate
the effectiveness of such measures despite
the hostility of the former US government
and they have now received a green light
from the new administration.
“Europe will increasingly
be presented with the choice to follow suit
or be left behind.”
“Substantial funding
needs to be flowing before 2013 and the
financing for mitigation measures needs
to be matched with actual emissions reductions
to be achieved,” said Mr Carstensen. “WWF
also believes that the UN system, where
developing nations have some real say, needs
to retain a central role in the disbursement
of the funds.
“The funding flows should
also be sustainable, predictable and additional
to existing aid.”
WWF said that the draft
Copenhagen Communication at least recognised
“offset loopholes” where carbon trading
system credits for industrialised country
emissions reductions could be generated
by illusory reductions in developing countries.
“Identifying loopholes
isn't enough, however,” Mr Carstensen said.
“They need to be closed and in this case
we suggest a firewall for all required,
low cost and win-win emissions reductions
in developed nations so that traded reductions
are truly new and additional reductions.”
+ More
More power needed behind
renewable energy push
28 Jan 2009 - Abu Dhabi,
UAE - WWF has told an audience of energy
experts and senior government officials
from more than 20 countries that the world’s
leading governments and businesses must
lead the planet towards the benefits of
renewable energy and a sustainable future.
At the second World
Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last week
delegates were told that if everybody in
the world consumed resources like the average
person in a G8 country then another three
planet Earths would be needed to sustain
them.
Attending the summit
were Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, author
of the Stern Review on the Economics of
Climate Change, and Dr Rajendra Pachauri,
Chairman of the Nobel Peace-prize winning
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The closing speaker was former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
“If we are to change
the paradigm then governments with unsustainable
ecological footprints must set verifiable
targets for reducing their carbon, water
and commodity footprints,” Eduardo Gonçalves,
International Coordinator for WWF’s One
Planet Living initiative, told the delegates.
“They must remove the
regulatory barriers to those businesses
investing in a sustainable future. They
must promote civic awareness of the impending
ecological credit crunch.
“Businesses must reform
their practices and look at the products
they bring to the market. They must lobby
governments for a level playing field for
sustainable corporate practice, and promote
sustainable consumer behaviour.
“And consumers must
look again at their own choices and tell
governments and business leaders that they
demand a new paradigm.”
He went on to outline
the fact that globally we are now outspending
our natural income – the renewable natural
resources the planet produces and replenishes
– by 30 per cent and that figure is growing
so fast that in another 25 years we are
going to need another planet to live on.
WWF’s One Planet Living
programme represents a radical shift from
wasteful and inefficient consumption and
production to an understanding of the natural
limits of our ecosystems and the services
they provide.
Gonçalves also
went on to praise the work of summit hosts
United Arab Emirates in the field of sustainability.
At the summit Abu Dhabi
alone announced the first firm commitments
from an Opec member to produce 7 per cent
of its energy from renewables. It has also
plendged $15bn to developing its Masdar
low carbon city initiative and the establishment
of a solar power joint venture.
“The government has
signed an agreement with WWF to work with
us and our partners to research the country’s
national ecological footprint – the flows
of energy, consumption of resources, and
production of waste,” said Gonçalves,
“and to work with us in mapping out a sustainable
future for the country and its citizens.
“It is an example that
should be followed, particularly by governments
in North America and the European Union.
The G8 countries may account for only 13
per cent of the world's population but they
represent one third of humanity's total
ecological footprint.”
In his closing remarks
former Prime Minister Blair urged world
leaders not to allow the current financial
crisis to get in the way of the fight against
climate change. He called for a new global
agreement setting tough interim targets
up to 2020 to transform countries into low-carbon
economies.
“It is right now, at
the instant when our thoughts are centred
on the economic challenge, that we must
not set to one side the challenge of global
warming, but instead resolve to meet it
and put the world on the path to a sustainable
future,” he said.
“It needs not just a
2050 target but an interim target to get
there, for example a target for 2020 that
shows seriousness of intent and gives business
a clear, unequivocal signal to invest in
a low-carbon future.”
