Bonn, 30 May 2011 -
Latest estimates from the International
Energy Agency (IEA) showing that greenhouse
gas emissions from world energy generation
reached record levels in 2010 are a stark
warning to governments to provide strong
new progress this year towards global solutions
to climate change, UN Climate Chief Christiana
Figueres said on Monday.
"This is the inconvenient
truth of where human generated greenhouse
gas emissions are projected to go without
much stronger international action now -
and into the future," said the Executive
Secretary of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"Governments are
meeting next week in Bonn to prepare for
the next major international climate conference
to be held in Durban at the end of the year.
It is clear that they need to push the world
further down the right track to avoid dangerous
climate change," the UN's top climate
change official said. "I won't hear
that this is impossible. Governments must
make it possible for society, business and
science to get this job done," she
added.
The latest IEA estimates
published today show that energy-related
CO2 emissions in 2010 were at their highest
level in history, following a brief dip
in 2009 due to the economic impacts of the
global financial crisis.
The Paris-based organization
also estimated that 80% of all projected
2020 greenhouse gas emissions from the power
sector are already locked into the global
system of power generation by plants that
already exist or are under construction.
Dr. Fatih Birol, Chief
Economist at the IEA who oversees the annual
World Energy Outlook, today called the latest
estimates a "wake-up call" for
the international community.
"The world has
edged incredibly close to the level of emissions
that should not be reached until 2020 if
the 2ºC target is to be attained,"
he said.
"Given the shrinking
room for manoeuvre in 2020, unless bold
and decisive decisions are made very soon,
it will be extremely challenging to succeed
in achieving this global goal agreed [at
the UN climate change conference] in Cancun,"
he added.
Alluding to the upcoming
round of UN climate change negotiations
in Bonn, Germany (6 - 17 June), UNFCCC Executive
Secretary Ms. Figueres said:
"No nation will
solve climate change alone. And no nation
is alone in feeling its impacts. We're only
a few days away now from the mid-year climate
negotiations and governments need to pick
up speed."
In Cancun, governments
launched the most comprehensive package
ever agreed to help developing nations deal
with climate change, including a set of
new international institutions to deliver
that support.
They also agreed a major
effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
but left open the question of how to raise
their collective level of ambition to keep
the global temperature rise at least below
two degrees.
Ms Figueres said that,
in Durban, governments will have two main
challenges that they have agreed to resolve:
First, to strengthen
the international conditions that will allow
nations to work together to make deeper
global emission cuts. This includes the
question of deciding the future of the Kyoto
Protocol.
Second, to agree on
the effective designs of the new climate
institutions that will provide adequate
and efficient climate support to developing
countries. This includes the Green Climate
Fund, Technology Mechanism and establishing
the Adaptation Committee.
"In the wider world,
I see two very encouraging trends,"
said Ms Figueres. "Countries, including
the biggest economies, are moving forward
with new
policies that promote
low-carbon prosperous growth, even if they
don't always attach climate labels to these
policies. And the private sector continues
to increase its investment in low-carbon
business and renewable energy and wants
to do more."
"In Durban at the
end of the year, governments need to take
the new steps that will drive both these
trends forward and much faster," she
said.
"The meeting in
Bonn is a major opportunity to prepare these
essential steps," she added.
+ More
Darfur water conference
will help build peace in troubled region,
says UN
Geneva, 31 May 2011
- The United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) will be part of a major international
conference on the critical issue of water
and sustainable peace in Sudan's Darfur
region, announced today.
The Darfur International
Conference on Water for Sustainable Peace,
to be held in Khartoum on 27 and 28 June,
will seek to raise support for a six-year
series of projects desperately needed to
develop a sustainable and equitable water
service system for Darfur.
In the process it will
tackle one of the elemental roots of the
conflict in recent years - competition over
dwindling natural resources.
"While water has
become ever more scarce in Darfur, the population
has grown dramatically," said Mohamed
Yonis, Deputy Joint Special Representative
of the African Union-United Nations Mission
in Darfur (UNAMID), briefing reporters in
Geneva today.
"This is a pivotal
moment in efforts to achieve the optimal
use of water because for the first time
the will is there from government and the
international community to work together
on joint solutions.
"We in the UN and
AU are determined to address this fundamental
issue which has driven conflict in Darfur.
"At the same time,
we are also on the ground working to protect
civilians while our mediators are pressing
for a peace agreement in Doha. No matter
the outcome, achieving the wise use of water
will remain a major issue to be resolved
for a sustainable peace in Darfur."
More than 250 international
and Sudanese water experts, economists,
development specialists and donors are expected
to participate in the two-day gathering
in June.
The conference will
launch an appeal for US$1.5 billion in water
sector projects, from rebuilding the water
infrastructure devastated by conflict and
neglect to introducing innovative technologies
and systems, to creating policy for drought
preparedness.
Mr Yonis briefed donors and the media in
Geneva today on the conference and appeal,
accompanied by UNEP's Sudan Programme Manager,
Robin Bovey, and the UNICEF Representative
for Sudan, Nils Kastberg.
Mr Bovey said the water
conference preparations have been a fine
model of consultation which will be the
basis for a cooperative approach to address
the urgent water issues facing communities
across Darfur.
"UN agencies, some
international non-governmental organizations
and various government departments have
been involved in the planning, and the Ministry
of Irrigation and Water Resources then took
the project portfolio to all three Darfur
states to seek input from community representatives
and state ministries," Mr Bovey said.
The Sudan Ministry of
Irrigation and Water Resources is sponsoring
the conference, along with United Nations
agencies, including UNEP, UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO,
FAO and UNOPS.
"What we're aiming
to do is to transform water from being a
trigger for conflict into a peace-building
instrument," said UNICEF Representative
Nils Kastberg. "It's an approach that
recognizes the unique importance of a resource
which is fundamental to all of us, and which
is a human right as much as a humanitarian
and developmental necessity."
An appeal document is
to be released at the Conference, seeking
funds for 56 projects in all. The document
calls for a major initiative that "fully
integrates water resource management and
WASH services for the affected population
to meet their survival, livelihood and environmental
protection needs, (and) which would advance
the cause of peace in the region."
For more information
on the Darfur International Conference on
Water for Sustainable Peace, visit the conference
website at: www.darfurwaterforpeace.org
UNEP's work in Sudan
is supported by UKAid from the Department
for International Development. UNEP is part
of the united call for greater donor support
for new water projects in Darfur given the
urgent need to expand work in this area.
