Posted on 07 November
2009 - St Andrews, Scotland – Finance ministers
of the world’s dominant economies failed
to reach agreement on the
financing required for a global agreement
to stave off catastrophic climate change,
WWF said today as the G20 finance ministers
meeting here broke up with no resolution
to issues dividing developed and emerging
economies.
The lack of progress
made by the G20 in St. Andrews, follows
another week of inconclusive negotiations
in UN climate talks in Barcelona as the
world heads towards the crucial UN climate
conference in Copenhagen in a month’s time.
With the G20 now having
considered the climate financing issue three
times without reaching common ground, WWF
remains sceptical about today's promise
to make further progress before Copenhagen.
“The G20 Finance Ministers
meeting turned out to be a mostly irrelevant
sideshow on the way to the talks in Copenhagen
in a months’ time," said Dr Richard
Dixon, Director of WWF Scotland.
"Failure to come
to agreement here is a major disappointment.
“This is a group that
can throw money at collapsing banks but
cannot find adequate figures for the far
worse challenge to the global economy of
a collapsing climate system."
In detail, the G20 ministers
acknowledged the need to increase significantly
and urgently the scale of funding but failed
to make any reference to the sums required,
estimated to be around $160bn a year of
public financing.
They also failed to
agree on new sources of funding for a climate
deal, such as auctioning emissions credits
and levies on aviation and shipping.
"Talk of a financial
transaction tax which has the potential
to raise hundreds of billions in new funding
every year turned out to be a red herring
without solid political support," Dr
Dixon said.
The G20 agreed some
principals on a mechanism to administer
and distribute these funds but failed to
turn these into concrete proposals and -
despite last week's pledges from Europe
- no new money was put on the table to help
the most vulnerable countries adapt to a
changing climate.
It is estimated the
immediate need for the most vulnerable nations
is around $10bn a year.
WWF endorsed the G20s
continuing professed interest in winding
back fossil fuel use subsidies, but said
the group needed to focus its main attention
on getting an effective global deal on climate.
“If we are to keep the
planet below the danger threshold of a 2ºC
temperature rise, the rich nations of the
world are going to have to help developing
countries follow a low-carbon development
path and help them cope with the impacts
of current and future climate change,"
Dr Dixon said.
"We wanted to see
solid proposals on how the money would be
raised, managed and distributed and an indication
of how soon the countries most vulnerable
to climate change will receive assistance.
The G20 has failed to deliver and the real
work will now have to be done at Copenhagen.”
+ More
Tuna commission urged
to add fishing halt to trade ban to save
bluefin
Posted on 07 November
2009 - Recife, Brazil – WWF, the global
conservation organization, is urging countries
meeting in Brazil this week to agree urgently
on a temporary fishing ban for the beleaguered
Atlantic bluefin tuna, as an essential measure
to avoid imminent stock collapse.
The International Commission
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
is gathering in Recife, Brazil for its annual
meeting, where the 48 contracting parties
are under pressure to decide on measures
that will ensure the long-term survival
of a species that has long been the victim
of illegal and over-fishing, disregard for
rules and science, and being targeted by
far too many boats.
“WWF wants to see Atlantic
bluefin tuna surviving long into the future
– both the amazing species and the fishing
industry it has supported for thousands
of years,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of
Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
“This is ICCAT’s role,
to ensure the sustainable commercial exploitation
of bluefin tuna, but it has failed spectacularly
in this mandate and there is no option left
but to stop fishing and let this wild animal
recover. It is the only way forward, there
is simply no Plan B.”
ICCAT’s own analysis
shows that a moratorium will give the best
chance of recovery to the seriously overexploited
bluefin tuna stocks in the Atlantic Ocean
and Mediterranean.
The organization’s scientific
committee analysed fish stocks at a special
meeting in October, demonstrating with their
data that Atlantic bluefin tuna fulfils
the criteria to be listed on Appendix I
of the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES), as proposed by the Principality
of Monaco and to be voted on next March
– a step that would ban all international
commercial trade.
WWF sees the trade ban
as a necessary parallel measure to a moratorium
on fishing. ICCAT’s scientific analysis
also shows that a suspension of fishing
is the only measure with a chance of ensuring
Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks no longer meet
the criteria for CITES Appendix I by 2019.
The tuna commission
astonished the world with a scheme
for continued overfishing that it labeled
a recovery plan.
“Atlantic bluefin tuna
stocks are sadly collapsing even faster
than ICCAT’s reputation,” added Sergi Tudela
of WWF. “For ICCAT to justify its existence
and show the world it is capable of responsible
fisheries management, how can it do anything
but stick to the best available science,
close the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery
now and give the fish a breather?
"Anything else
would be a slap in the face to science,
a slap in the face to those who care about
sustainable seafood, and a slap in the face
to ICCAT’s own survival – if there’s no
more fish, there’s no more fish to manage.”
The latest science shows
that Atlantic bluefin tuna’s spawning population
has declined to below 15% of pre-fishing
levels – and may even have dropped to under
10%.
Meeting just a year
ago, ICCAT’s members ritually tossed overboard
the advice of their own scientists and did
not even put the fishing closure supported
by its own review on the agenda. The tuna
commission astonished the world with a scheme
for continued overfishing that it labeled
a recovery plan but that WWF named a “collapse
plan”. In response, increasing numbers of
global retailers, restaurants, chefs and
consumers are stopping buying, selling,
serving and eating this endangered species.
For more information: Gemma Parkes, +39
346 387 3237, gparkes@wwfmedpo.org
Notes to editor
? Footage and photos available on request
? For more on WWF’s tuna campaign, see www.panda.org/tuna
