Brussels, 22/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - One year after Copenhagen and a week ahead of the international climate conference of Cancun (COP 16, 29 November -10 December), calls on the political decision-makers to make this crucial stage a success are multiplying. Former ministers and leaders of international environmental organisations are getting together to call on the heads of state and government and the planet's negotiators to allow real progress to be made in international negotiations and therefore to help resolve the world economic crisis.
“We who have held ministerial office are particularly well-placed to understand the need to balance the global demands which confront our societies and the constraints on the governments in power - not least in a period of economic crisis. In taking both into account, we believe that governments must, as a matter of urgency, commit themselves to the creation of a green economy (…), so that the low-carbon economies, notably those of the South, are fully capable of growing in a way that is sustainable, and the ongoing, schedule and massive reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions of the countries of the North, using an energy and industrial reconversion model”, state the signatories of the call, who are members of the Association AFM-ILE, convinced that “there can be no sustainable economic growth without sustainable environmental policies”.
They are therefore calling on the governments to systematically increase by 10% the voluntary commitments undertaken in Copenhagen for the reduction of emissions. The countries of the North which pledged to fund, to the tune of $100 billion a year, the adaptation and attenuation efforts of the countries of the South by 2020, are also called upon to “keep their commitments in the form of a tax on financial transactions, to feed directly into this objective, on top of the development aid”.
The governments are also called upon to lend their support to the expert groups on the climate “to put an end to attempts to scupper the IPCC to stop people from taking action”.
This call was signed by Ahmed Alami (Morocco), Charles Goerens (Luxembourg), Satu Hassi (Finland), Dang Huu (Vietnam), Corine Lepage (France), Serge Lepeltier (France), Sergio Marchi (Canada), Juan Mayr (Colombia), John Gummer (United Kingdom), Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (Italy), Sirpa Pietikäinen (Finland) and Klaus Töpfer (Germany).
A small EU-US step - In the wake of this appeal of 19 November, the EU and the US undertook, after their bilateral summit, to “push for a positive result” in Cancun (see other article). The two parties were referring to progress on all key elements of the Copenhagen Agreement: attenuation, transparency, funding, adaptation, technologies and forests. “We will continue to work closely together in all appropriate forums, especially in the framework of the Convention of the United Nations and the Major Economies Forum, to guarantee that the global and complete agreement by virtue of which we will work contains solid and transparent reduction commitments on the part of all of the major economies”, they said. This commitment also goes for COP 17, to be held next year in South Africa. (A.N./transl.fl)