Posted on 30 June 2010
Paris, France:
A Russian government decision to allow a
pulp and paper mill to put polluting wastes
into the world’s oldest and deepest lake
has been placed on the agenda of the next
UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting,
A coalition of concerned
organizations, including WWF and Greenpeace,
presented a petition signed by 125 000 people
from 52 countries to UNESCO today and were
assured that the issue is due to be raised
with Russian delegates to the meeting in
late July.
“UNESCO is worried by
the situation with the World Heritage Site
Lake Baikal, caused by Russian government’s
decision to allow lake pollution by waste
from Baikal pulp and paper mill. The open
cycle work of the mill contradicts requirements
of the World Heritage Convention”,
UNESCO Assistant Director-General
for Culture Francesco Bandarin told a meeting
with WWF and Greenpeace today.
“We will bring our opinion
to the notice of the Russian government
and hope that Russia as a bona fide member
of the Convention will take all measures
to avoid damaging the universal value of
Lake Baikal as a result of its pollution
by the mill waste,” he said.
Mystery of how the seals
arrived
Lake Baikal’s World
Heritage listing describes it as “the oldest
(25 million years) and deepest (1,700 m)
lake in the world, . It contains 20 per
cent of the world's total unfrozen freshwater
reserve. Known as the 'Galapagos of Russia',
its age and isolation have produced one
of the world's richest and most unusual
freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional
value to evolutionary science.”
Residents of the 3.15
million hectare lake in south east Siberia,
the world’s sixth largest, include one of
the world’s only three species of freshwater
seals, it being a complete mystery how they
arrived in the lake an estimated to million
years ago.
The NGOs provided UNESCO
with research conducted by prominent scientists
from the Siberian branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences showing that the decision
to reopen the paper mill is not well-founded
and will both damage the lake and fail to
solve the region’s socio-economic problems.
+ More
Climate change commitments
"missing" in G8 Accountability
Report
Posted on 20 June 2010
Ottawa, Canada: WWF is critical of the G8
Accountability Report released today for
not measuring progress on one of the most
substantial G8 development and climate change
commitments to date: to limit temperature
rise to an identified 2 degrees Centigrade
threshold of dangerous climate change.
“If we don't limit global
warming to as far below two degrees as possible,
all development ambitions will be in serious
danger,” said Kim Carstensen, leader of
WWF's Global Climate Initiative.
“The G8 countries have yet to make sufficient
emission cuts to reach this goal, and this
accountability report should be assessing
– not ignoring – this issue.”
"This report indicates
that the world's leading economies have
yet to integrate climate change and development
plans in a real and meaningful way."
The G8 stated in 2009
that they would “take the lead” to ensure
global and national emission peaks could
“take place as soon as possible.” They recognized
that an “increase in global average temperature”
shouldn’t “exceed 2 degrees C.”
This followed the Gleneagles 2005 commitment
- also not included in the Accountability
Report - to make “substantial reductions”
to stabilize emission concentrations in
the atmosphere “at a level that prevents
dangerous anthropogenic interference with
the climate system.”
“If anything should
be in the Accountability Report, even one
focused on development, it should be climate
change. The G8 – and now G20 – should be
sending clear messages to the rest of the
world that they are working to cut emissions
to reduce impacts on the most vulnerable,
and stimulate a low carbon economy for all.”
Of 56 indicators, there
are five in total on energy and the environment.
The Report does include the UN Copenhagen
Accord promise on fast-track and long-term
financing – both UN decisions that require
the leadership of the G8 and G20 respectively.
The Report also notes
that the G8 will fail to meet its 2010 objectives
on reducing the loss of biodiversity. A
temperature rise of 2 degrees C would put
30% of biodiversity at risk.
