Copenhagen talks must ensure climate justice, or bust
Other news
Monday, 14 December 2009 14:53
Climate Justice is the ‘make or break’ trigger that will make the historic conference succeed or fail. This is the main message from the Road to Copenhagen Conference hosted by, Mary Robinson, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Margot Wallström in Malmö, Sweden and co-organised by GLOBE Europe.
More than 150 participants, representing civil society, business and legislators, gathered at the Road to Copenhagen Conference to explore the necessary drivers for ensuring a Copenhagen climate change agreement based on climate justice: human rights, technological diffusion and the financial mechanisms ensuring fair burden sharing.
“Copenhagen must mark a paradigm shift, away from the ‘us vs. them’ and towards a ‘One Earth’ future,” said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Vice President of the Club of Madrid. “This historic conference must deliver on the human dimension of climate change, build on the principles of burden sharing and ‘polluters pay,’ and on improved access to adequate, sustainable technology and predictable financial resources for developing countries to be able to ensure mitigation and adaptation.”
The conference stressed that the shared vision for long-term cooperation must make clear reference to the respect of human rights and gender equality as a core guiding principle of the post 2012 agreement.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change, former Prime Minister of Norway and a Member of the Club of Madrid, underlined that the costs of climate change action are huge but manageable, and significantly less than the costs of inaction. COP-15 provides the opportunity to construct the necessary financial architecture with a governance structure that enables an effectively regulated and credible transfer mechanism between developed and developing countries – transfers which should reach at least 100billion euros each year by 2020.
“Thanks to the efforts of thousands of scientists around the world, we know what is happening, and how dangerous the situation is,” said Brundtland. “We know what we must do to stop it. The only conclusion is that leaders now must show responsibility and agree to an ambitious treaty.”
The conference also stressed the importance of calling on governments to double global spending for energy related research, development and deployment (RD&D) by 2012 and quadruple it by 2020. Fast Start funding is essential to enable and encourage early action in the first years of post-Copenhagen.
Margot Wallström, European Commission First Vice President, Institutional Relations and Communications Strategy, stressed the importance of ensuring that research and development, and clean technology deployment policies and investment mechanisms be differentiated according to local conditions. She also urged a fast start in order to help deploy today’s technologies to deliver emissions reductions in the next 10 years.
"Safe and sustainable low carbon technology on a global scale will play a key role in fighting climate change,” said Wallström. “Copenhagen therefore needs to establish clear and ambitious conditions for technology cooperation, transfer and finance. Technology solutions for cities also need to be promoted."
Road to Copenhagen Conference is a joint initiative of the Club of Madrid, GLOBE Europe and Respect Table which generated ‘ownership of the negotiations process’ amongst people across the world beyond those directly involved in closed, government-to-government negotiations: civil society, business, students, legislators. The initiative made it possible for people from these sectors of society to contribute their personal recommendations to the global climate deal through online and in-person debates. A final set of recommendations (the Communiqué) emerging from the process —attached to this document— was delivered directly to policy-makers today via the U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer.
Receiving the communiqué from Gro Harlem Brundtland, UNFCCC Secretary General underlined that the work Road to Copenhagen organizers have done is very important, as “politicians in no country can advance on the topic if they don’t have the support of their people, companies and parliamentarians.” He further strongly recommended delivering these recommendations to all Ministers and Heads of States and Government that will be arriving to COP15 in the coming days. ”It is a strong sign of encouragement to them to really live up to public participation from young, businesses, and parliamentarians, and do something here in Copenhagen that is significant.”
To watch the proceedings and debates of the conference, please click here.
To watch the final press conference at Bella Centre with the official delivery please click here
More than 150 participants, representing civil society, business and legislators, gathered at the Road to Copenhagen Conference to explore the necessary drivers for ensuring a Copenhagen climate change agreement based on climate justice: human rights, technological diffusion and the financial mechanisms ensuring fair burden sharing.
“Copenhagen must mark a paradigm shift, away from the ‘us vs. them’ and towards a ‘One Earth’ future,” said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Vice President of the Club of Madrid. “This historic conference must deliver on the human dimension of climate change, build on the principles of burden sharing and ‘polluters pay,’ and on improved access to adequate, sustainable technology and predictable financial resources for developing countries to be able to ensure mitigation and adaptation.”
The conference stressed that the shared vision for long-term cooperation must make clear reference to the respect of human rights and gender equality as a core guiding principle of the post 2012 agreement.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change, former Prime Minister of Norway and a Member of the Club of Madrid, underlined that the costs of climate change action are huge but manageable, and significantly less than the costs of inaction. COP-15 provides the opportunity to construct the necessary financial architecture with a governance structure that enables an effectively regulated and credible transfer mechanism between developed and developing countries – transfers which should reach at least 100billion euros each year by 2020.
“Thanks to the efforts of thousands of scientists around the world, we know what is happening, and how dangerous the situation is,” said Brundtland. “We know what we must do to stop it. The only conclusion is that leaders now must show responsibility and agree to an ambitious treaty.”
The conference also stressed the importance of calling on governments to double global spending for energy related research, development and deployment (RD&D) by 2012 and quadruple it by 2020. Fast Start funding is essential to enable and encourage early action in the first years of post-Copenhagen.
Margot Wallström, European Commission First Vice President, Institutional Relations and Communications Strategy, stressed the importance of ensuring that research and development, and clean technology deployment policies and investment mechanisms be differentiated according to local conditions. She also urged a fast start in order to help deploy today’s technologies to deliver emissions reductions in the next 10 years.
"Safe and sustainable low carbon technology on a global scale will play a key role in fighting climate change,” said Wallström. “Copenhagen therefore needs to establish clear and ambitious conditions for technology cooperation, transfer and finance. Technology solutions for cities also need to be promoted."
Road to Copenhagen Conference is a joint initiative of the Club of Madrid, GLOBE Europe and Respect Table which generated ‘ownership of the negotiations process’ amongst people across the world beyond those directly involved in closed, government-to-government negotiations: civil society, business, students, legislators. The initiative made it possible for people from these sectors of society to contribute their personal recommendations to the global climate deal through online and in-person debates. A final set of recommendations (the Communiqué) emerging from the process —attached to this document— was delivered directly to policy-makers today via the U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer.
Receiving the communiqué from Gro Harlem Brundtland, UNFCCC Secretary General underlined that the work Road to Copenhagen organizers have done is very important, as “politicians in no country can advance on the topic if they don’t have the support of their people, companies and parliamentarians.” He further strongly recommended delivering these recommendations to all Ministers and Heads of States and Government that will be arriving to COP15 in the coming days. ”It is a strong sign of encouragement to them to really live up to public participation from young, businesses, and parliamentarians, and do something here in Copenhagen that is significant.”
To watch the proceedings and debates of the conference, please click here.
To watch the final press conference at Bella Centre with the official delivery please click here
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