Posted on 08 December
2009 - Copenhagen, Denmark - A leaked draft
Copenhagen climate agreement prepared by
the Danish hosts of the summit
should be regarded "as a distraction"
from the negotiations which should focus
on texts that have been worked up in previous
negotiating sessions, WWF said yesterday.
The Guardian newspaper,
which published the document and sighted
a confidential developing country analysis
of it, said the text was a departure from
the Kyoto protocol which weakened the pre-eminent
role of the UN negotiations.
“The behind the scenes
negotiations tactics under the Danish Presidency,
have been focusing on pleasing the rich
and powerful countries rather than serving
the majority of states who are demanding
a fair and ambitious solution,” said Kim
Carstensen, leader of WWF's Global Climate
Initiative.
“The Danish Prime Minister´s
proposed text is weak and reflects a too
elitist, selective and non-transparent approach
by the Danish presidency.”
The Guardian said it
was believed the UK and US were involved
with Denmark in drawing up the text. WWF
has been critical of the Danish Prime Minister
for talking down what can be achieved in
the Copenhagen talks in recent weeks, and
has tracked the growing criticism from both
emerging economies and states highly vulnerable
to climate change impacts.
“We understand and share
the frustration of the poor and vulnerable
countries," Carstensen said. "We
urge the Danish presidency to change its
style and move to a cooperative and listening
mode.
"We also believe
this was one of the political signals sent
by COP President Connie Hedegaard in her
opening statement yesterday.”
Carstensen said the
draft appeared to go in a contrarz direction
to months of intense negotiations on text
over more than a year.
“Focus on the Danish
text right now is a distraction from the
negotiations that have just resumed for
their final phase in Copenhagen," he
said. "Talks must focus on the text
that has so far been negotiated and not
on new texts that are being negotiated in
small groups.”
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The sixth annual meeting
of WCPFC is taking place in Tahiti, from
Dec. 7-11.
Cambridge, UK — Failure
by the Western Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission (WCPFC) to manage fish stocks
properly is contributing to the reduction
of Bigeye tuna and other fish.
WWF and TRAFFIC, the
wildlife trade monitoring network, said
today that the regional fisheries management
organization must address these flaws when
they meet this week in Tahiti.
“TRAFFIC and WWF are
particularly concerned that the efforts
made by WCPFC to reduce fishing effort to
try and protect Bigeye tuna stocks in the
Pacific have failed according to the Commission’s
Scientific Committee,” said Glenn Sant,
TRAFFIC’s Global Marine Programme Leader.
“Tuna Commissions need
to listen to the advice of their Scientific
Committees.
“It is of paramount
importance that effective steps are taken
to reduce the mortality of Bigeye Tuna immediately
by 43 percent,” Sant said.
Global stocks of several
tuna species are heavily overfished, with
populations of Atlantic and Southern Bluefin
tuna fished down to dangerously low levels.
The Southern Bluefin tuna spawning stock
is as low as 3 percent of its original size.
More recently, concerns have been expressed
over stocks of Yellow-fin tuna in the Indian
Ocean.
“We live in desperate
times as far as the health of our global
tuna stocks are concerned,” said Sant.
In 2007, TRAFFIC and
WWF published With An Eye to the Future:
Addressing Failures in the Global Management
of Bigeye Tuna, a report showing that Bigeye
Tuna stocks around the world require better
management.
“Last year, WCPFC tried
to address overfishing of Bigeye Tuna in
the Pacific, but their measures haven’t
worked. Now there is no time to lose if
Bigeye Tuna is not to join its cousins on
the brink of fished-out over-exploitation.”
Conservation of shark
species caught during tuna fishing activities
is another area of concern TRAFFIC and WWF
have flagged for the meeting.
The organizations say
a requirement that the landing of sharks
should be mandatory, with fins naturally
attached and all products tagged for traceability
until their final destination.
The sixth annual meeting
of WCPFC is taking place in Tahiti, from
Dec. 7-11.
Copenhagen, Denmark – The US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) announced today
that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public
health and welfare, setting the stage for
regulation of global warming pollution under
the Clean Air Act.
“This is great news
and shows that the Administration is committed
to enforcing the Clean Air Act and addressing
dangerous climate change," said Keya
Chatterjee, Director of WWF-US’s Climate
Change Program.
The finding recognizes
the clear scientific basis for regulating
carbon pollution as a threat to public health
and welfare and clears the way for the EPA
to require remedial moves by large scale
carbon emitters and industries.
Under the former Bush
administration, the EPA resisted such a
finding during continuous court battles
with community and environmental groups
seeking toughening of notoriously lax vehicle
emissions standards. Ultimately, the US
Supreme Court narrowed the EPA's choices
with an April 2007 ruling that it should
either regulate carbon emissions as a pollutant
or come up with a convincing explanation
of why it wouldn't..
But WWF-US does not
see the turn-around in the EPA view of carbon
emissions under the Obama administration
can be a substitute for climate change legislation
now before the US Senate.
"The Clean Air
Act is now and must remain an important
tool for helping to fight dangerous climate
change," said Chatterjee. "The
most effective approach to addressing the
climate crisis both at home and as part
of a global partnership is through comprehensive
climate legislation.
“In the context of the
Copenhagen climate talks, this finding underscores
the Administration’s seriousness about climate
change, but we still have one missing element:
the trust of the international community
that the US will follow through on the medium
and long term targets announced by President
Obama last week.
"For that, we also need US legislation.
When President Obama comes to Copenhagen
next week, the world will be listening intently
for assurance that he will make climate
change his next legislative priority after
healthcare.”
