Time’s Up

BARCELONA – The international civil society network Climate Justice Now! deplores the downplaying of expectations for the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Barcelona by industrialized countries, UNFCCC officials and the host of the Copenhagen Summit.  On the eve of Copenhagen, there is still no real progress on targets, a naïve and dangerous reliance on market mechanisms, no commitment to human rights, and a frightening context in which some countries are beginning to talk seriously about dangerous climate techno-fixes.

"Instead of discussing practical approaches to rapid emissions reductions -- like a massive investment in safe renewable energy and rapid technology transfer -- here in Barcelona, the developed countries are downplaying expectations, inching toward weak targets, minimal financing and no meaningful agreements on technology transfer,” said Meena Raman, Legal Advisor of Third World Network.  “The attempts to destroy and alter the present legal instruments of the climate regime (Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol), with false and unjust solutions being put forward as part of a weak aggregate target, are destroying the trust and good faith that are needed deliver a strong agreement in Copenhagen" said Raman.

One of the deliverables of Copenhagen was supposed to be a deal on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) but that is liable to end up as a green-washing exercise if there is no legally binding climate change agreement in Copenhagen. “We cannot allow a bad REDD deal to be a loophole that sabotages a genuine solution to climate change. Industrialized countries have a historical responsibility for human-induced climate change and a REDD deal will not work without commitments from these countries to reduce their domestic emissions by at least 40%,” said Alejandro Alemán of Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua, speaking on behalf of the Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change.