Environment
October 25, 2009
Denmark's prime minister has urged world leaders to pick up the pace of discussions as the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen approaches.
“I suggest that we lock in the determination to act already by Copenhagen and seek political commitment for immediate implementation,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Saturday. He added that it was possible to outline the main components of an agreement to replace that which was forged in Kyoto in 1997, and to implement it early next year.
"In this way, Copenhagen could provide for immediate action based on a comprehensive set of binding political commitments from world leaders," Rasmussen said.
The current European Development Days meetings in Stockholm are aimed at forming European Union policy ahead of the Copenhagen talks December 7-18.
Environment and climate ministers are set to meet in Barcelona next week, and another ministerial summit in Copenhagen is scheduled for mid-November.
Some progress has been made during this round, which began Thursday -- Rasmussen said the meeting had advanced on measures to adapt to climate change, technology, and issues related to forestation and deforestation.
But there is no agreement on some of the most important questions, including the commitment of industrialized and developing nations to abide by goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the quantity of aid to be given to poor nations to reduce emissions.
"The right funding package"
Oxfam International executive director Jeremy Hobbs was less than optimistic about the chances for new climate standards if rich countries refuse to help bear the developing countries' costs for meeting them.
“We don't think there will be a deal without the right funding package,” Hobbs told AFP.
The presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone told the meeting that their countries were “disproportionately affected by the climate crisis,” and being asked to carry a burden created by more developed nations.
"We urgently need your support in helping us adapt to the negative effects of climate change,” Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leonean president Ernest Bai Koroma said in a joint statement.
Canadian Inuit leader Mary Simon will be asking for an immediate aid contribution of $20 billion (13.3 billion euros) at the Copenhagen summit.
"There is a village in my homeland that is beginning to sink into the earth. The permafrost underneath them is melting. And that's happening all over the Arctic," said Simon.
Worldwide protests
Protesters around the world also sought to bring attention to climate issues on Saturday.
In Berlin, about 350 people wearing masks depicting Chancellor Angela Merkel rallied at the Brandenburg Gate, calling on her to become “the climate chancellor.”
In Beirut, demonstrators wearing snorkels massed at archaeological sites to protest the way changing water levels could swamp the city. Students in Jakarta gathered to form the number 350 – the number of parts per million of carbon dioxide that scientists say must not be exceeded to avoid catastrophic consequences.
svs/AFP/Reuters/AP/dw
Editor: Andy Valvur