05
April 2009 - International — Patience for
world leaders talking about tackling climate
change is wearing thin. Just as US President
Barack Obama addressed a crowd of thousands
in Prague on Sunday, Greenpeace activists
unveiled a banner urging him to "lead
the change on climate", a challenge
Obama accepted in his speech.
Meanwhile far, far away
from the EU-US Summit, an ice-bridge holding
the Wilkins Ice Shelf (the size of Jamaica)
to Antarctica collapsed due to global warming.
Delivering an urgent
message to world leaders
We also unfurled a huge banner reading "Bail
Out the Climate" from Prague's Nustle
bridge, in full view of venue hosting the
EU and US summit, which President Obama
is also attending.
Obama said that the
US is ready to lead on climate change. Now
we need to see the European Union commit
to working with him on that. This year's
major UN climate change summit in Copenhagen
is now only eight months away.
After all has been said
and done at recent summits of world leaders
discussing climate action, much more has
been said than really done.
A transatlantic alliance
we can be proud of
With the US claiming to be committed to
action on climate change there is an opportunity
for the transatlantic alliance to take real
action. Runaway climate change could make
poverty permanent in the developing world,
and strangle growth in the developed world,
but the right decisions could head off the
looming crisis.
To reduce emissions
of greenhouse gases and cope with the already
unavoidable impacts of climate change, developing
countries need at least EUR 110 billion
a year by 2020 from rich countries. This
money should be raised through an international
scheme that asks rich nations to pay for
their carbon footprint, thus providing the
certainty developing countries need to leverage
private funds for green investment.
40 percent GHG emission
reductions by 2020
Besides financing green measures in developing
countries, both the US and the EU will need
to upgrade their reduction targets in the
light of recent science.
To avoid runaway climate
change, developed countries as a group need
to commit to an aggregate target of at least
40 percent emission reductions from 11000
levels by 2020. (Read Greenpeace demands
for Copenhagen: Long version, Short version)
World Leaders: Mark
your diaries
World leaders have a chance to deliver both
the financing and emission cuts through
the UN climate process.
That's why we're calling
on heads of state to tae personal responsibility
for thenegotiations and sign up to attend
the final climate summit in Copenhagen,
at the end of the year: to ensure a good
deal for the climate.
Meanwhile Antarctica
melts
The shattering of the bridge connecting
the Wilkins Ice Shelf to Antartica comes
in stark contrast to the glacial pace of
the international climate negotiations taking
place in Bonn where governments are trying
to avoid acting responsibly, and bickering
about who's at fault (hint: somebody else
is).
Simply put, since ice-shelves
float, their collapse will not in itself
contribute to sea level rise. Nonetheless,
any resultant increase in the "flow"
of inland glaciers due to the loss of the
shelves, together with increased melt water
runoff will add to sea level rise.
To put it in context,
it's probable that the current reduction
in ice-shelves in the region has no precedent
in the last 10,000 years, and it is certain
that this minimum has not been reached at
any time in the last millennium.
