| November 25, 2008 |  |
United Nations Climate Meeting Participants Must Maintain Momentum as They Look Forward to the Obama Administration, U.S. Science Group says
United Nations Climate Meeting Participants Must Maintain Momentum as They Look Forward to the Obama Administration, U.S. Science Group says
In early December approximately 180 countries will attend U.N. climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland, to begin laying the groundwork for a December 2009 summit in Copenhagen, where they will try to reach final agreement on a new climate treaty. The major issues on the agenda in Poland are deforestation and providing technical and financial assistance to developing countries to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change.
"It's essential that countries at the Poznan meeting keep their eyes on the prize," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "That means getting all the options on key issues on the table so that they can prepare a legal negotiating text and identify major sticking points."
Participants do not expect any major breakthroughs at the Poznan meeting, Meyer said, given that the Bush administration still will represent the United States. But most attendees are heartened by Barack Obama's election as the next U.S. president.
"Obama's election has created extraordinary momentum," said Meyer. "President-elect Obama has expressed a clear desire to not only engage with the international community, but to provide leadership on global warming. He understands that we have very little time to act if we are to prevent the worst consequences of climate change, including dramatic sea level rise, droughts, water shortages and flooding, which could lead to massive suffering and economic hardship in the United States and around the world."
Every industrialized country other than the United States has committed to cutting their global warming emissions. President-elect Obama signaled his intent to have the United States join them in his speech last week to the Governors Global Climate Summit, where he pledged to "establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 percent by 2050."
"President-elect Obama understands that to engage such major developing countries as China, India and Brazil, we have to take real action here at home," Meyer said. "We also have a responsibility to help developing countries rapidly deploy low-carbon clean energy technologies, reduce deforestation, and adapt to the mounting impacts of global warming."
At the Poznan session, delegates will discuss new mechanisms to speed the development and availability of clean technologies in every economic sector, as well as ways to sharply increase funding for developing country adaptation strategies.
Developing countries with tropical forests already have offered to help reduce global emissions by maintaining their forests. "Given emissions from deforestation now account for nearly a fifth of total global emissions, it's essential we make progress in Poznan on this issue," Meyer said. (A new UCS analysis on protecting forests will be available on December 6 at: www.ucsusa.org/REDD.)
"The science is clear: To prevent the worst effects of climate change, global emissions of heat-trapping gases must be cut sharply over the next several decades," Meyer said. "But we are gaining momentum. Both industrialized and developing countries now are offering a range of constructive proposals to address this challenge, and as soon as the Obama administration takes office, the United States will join them." (For a UCS analysis of the level of emissions reductions the United States must achieve, go to: www.ucsusa.org/emissionstarget.)
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
