Europe must change tack to save UN climate talks in Montreal

international | environment | press release

Tuesday December 06, 2005 19:38

by Oisin Coghlan - Friends of the Earth

info at foe dot ie

9 Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2

01-6394653

Friends of the Earth has written to European environment ministers in advance of their arrival in Montreal calling on them to rethink the EU's negotiating strategy. The current approach risks the climate talks drifting into a dead end.

Minister Dick Roche, who has delayed his departure for Montreal until after the budget, received the letter on Tuesday afternon.

Oisin Coghlan, Friends of the Earth Director in Ireland, said

“The EU’s Environment Ministers must not forget that Europe has sent them to Montreal to secure a robust framework for negotiations to win the battle against global climate change. Their negotiators, who have been in Montreal for more than a week now, have instead prioritised an agreement that is acceptable to the Bush Administration. But the US negotiators have made clear they will water any deal down to voluntary action or nothing, making it worth less than the paper it's written on.”

The US cannot be allowed a veto on the outcome of the negotiations. Too much is at stake. The Kyoto Protocol, to which the US is not a party, provides a mechanism for the rest of the world to move forward. The EU must push for the start of negotiations to agree new targets by 2008 for deeper emission cuts by industrialised countries. Business is looking for such certainty in order to be able to plan ahead in good time. If no agreement is reached in Montreal on a timeline and a deadline for negotiations then the whole process may begin to unravel.

Mr Coghlan continued:

“The choice is pretty clear. We can have an agreement that the US will join now but it won't be adequate to prevent dangerous climate change. Or we can have a robust agreement that gives the world hope which the US can join at any time in the future. And Friends of the Earth believes that the increasing pressure inside the US to reap the economic, environmental and social benefits of progressive action will mean that Bush's successor will sign up in time."

NOTES

[1] From 28 November to 9 December, world governments meet in Montreal
for the first meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP) as
well as the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the
Climate Change Convention (COP). The high level ministerial segment
will start on Wednesday, 7th December. For more see http://www.climatepledge.ie

[2] A detailed position the Montreal climate negotiations is available
from Friends of the Earth Europe's web site at
http://www.foeeurope.org/climate/download/FoEE_COPMOP_positionpaper.pdf

[3] If a decision was agreed under the Kyoto Protocol from 1997, rather
than the Convention from 1992, the US would not be able to block it as
it is not a Party to the Protocol. Also, the Kyoto Protocol provides a
much miore robust framework for discussing the future of the climate
regime, other than the Convention that focuses on voluntary measures
only.

[4] Not the whole country agrees with the US Administration. For
example, the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement unites more than
180 mayors representing nearly 40 million Americans, demanding action
on the federal level; California, the fifth largest economy in the
World, aims at an 80 per cent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050. Nine
States aim at cutting back their emissions to 2000 levels. With a keen
eye on the emissions trading market and the growing demand for clean
energy technologies, many US businesses would like to see the US re-
join the climate regime sooner rather than later.

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Comments (1 of 1)

Last night (our time) delegates to the conference

by ipsi

Fri Dec 09, 2005 18:24

saw a worst case projection for 2050 and 2100 on new sea levels. & it really is quite something. The pacific atolls which average highest point between only 10 and 60 metres look set to disappear. Considering that their main source of income is either for hosting military services (USAF in the main) or tourism, the plight of Micronesia and neighbours when appealing for emission reduction can't be underplayed.
As hard scientific prediction stands, most of the atolls will disappear and what will be left won't be worth an airbase or a sandy beach holiday. Some of the atolls are particularly bitter as they are since the late 80s formally US posessions, and it seems odd therefore that the first islands to disappear under the sea will technically be American.
After that other islands including the wonderful little Tokelau are going to get submerged, and since Tokelau (an autonomous region of New Zealand) hosts a few of the the most politically sticky websites in the world, one wonders will rising sea levels finally spell an end to ".tk" registration...
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tl.html
Of course, European islands will go too. Malta seems pretty set to lose most of its "productive" territory just like Venice. & the low bits people enjoy hiding from the international courts in on the Azores, Canarias, Cabo Verde. I suppose bull island bird reserve is fkd.

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Europe must change tack to save UN climate talks in Montreal

Comments (1 of 1)