UN climate conference agrees on policy guide in Spain

www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-17 10:42:19

MADRID, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) --

A panel of UN climate change scientists and national delegations agreed on a guide for policymakers Friday, warning of the rising risk of global warming affecting the planet.

Delegates of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from more than 140 countries met this week in Valencia, eastern Spain.

The five-day meeting concluded early Friday with the approval of a 20-page summary of countless data pages and computer projections, compiled since 2001 by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC.

The summary report provides a common scientific baseline for future political talk on climate change, as it was adopted by consensus, meaning that all participating governments accept it and cannot disavow its conclusions.

The document, which summarizes the scientific consensus on climate change caused by human beings, will be distributed to delegates at a crucial meeting in Indonesia next month that is intended to launch a political process on international cooperation to control global warming.

The report describes how climate systems are changing and why, the impact this is having on mankind and ecosystems, and many of its possible future impacts if due action is not taken to slow the trend.

The summary and a longer "synthesis report" of about 70 pages, which are expected to be formally adopted after proofreading, will be released Saturday at a news conference attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The forthcoming climate change meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali, starting on Dec. 3, will focus on the next step in combating climate change after the measures adopted in the Kyoto Protocol expire in five years.

The Kyoto Protocol obliges 36 industrial countries to radically reduce their carbon emissions by 2012, but it has no clear plan for what happens after that date.

At the meeting in Bali, the summary will be put before environment ministers, who are likely to agree a two-year strategy to negotiate a successor to the protocol.

But a final agreement on the synthesis report, as it is known, is dependent on approval of a much longer underlying scientific report which is still being considered.

The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization to give governments scientific advice about climate change.

Editor: Jiang Yuxia

Climate change conference opens in Maldives

www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-14 00:27:27 Print

COLOMBO, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) --

The world's Small Island States gathered in the Maldives on Tuesday to highlight the plight of the world's most vulnerable communities to climate change and coordinate their positions before a key UN meeting scheduled for December.

The Foreign Ministry of the Maldives said in a statement that the conference will attempt to broaden the traditional climate change debate by focusing on the human dimension of this fundamental threat to planet, people and prosperity, according to website of the ministry.

Delegates from 23 island nations will examine how global warming is affecting the lives of individual people around the world, and to agree on whether climate change fundamentally compromises individual rights and liberties.

The meeting, with the theme of "Human Dimension of Global Climate Change", will also explore ways for Small Island States to collaborate in the preparation of a new global agreement to replace the Kyoto Treaty.

Addressing the opening ceremony in the Maldivian capital of Male, Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said that environmental protection, preservation and security are part of an individual's basic human rights.

Gayoom called for a comprehensive international treaty to guarantee this fundamental human right to millions of people across the world.

He told the gathering of representatives of member countries of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and international environmental organizations that people should be "at the heart of climate change diplomacy."

The president urged the delegates to develop a common platform for next month's important Bali (Indonesia) conference.

He said for the Maldives and other member countries of AOSIS, environmental security was today an issue of life and death.

"We are under no illusion that time is running out for us to ensure the survival of our future generations. It is our responsibility to ensure that they are not deprived of the opportunity to grow up and to live in a safe and protected environment," the president said.

"The future we seek to build is not a zero-sum game where one lifestyle is sacrificed to save another," said Gayoom, adding that measures to counter climate change will power sustainable development, create new and better jobs and raise living standards across the world.

At the end of the two-day conference, Small Island States are expected to adopt a "Declaration on the Human Dimension of Climate Change."

The document will be accompanied by a resolution that will "operationalize" the declaration by setting out the negotiating position of Small Island States ahead of the Bali Process.

The 13th United Nations Climate Change Conference is expected to be held in Bali from Dec. 3 to 14 to formulate a roadmap for a future climate change deal.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Multilateral action urged to takle effects of climate change at UN meeting

www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-13 06:30:07 Print

MADRID, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) --

Some 450 experts from 130 countries, present at the 27th Inter-Government Climate Change Group Plenary (IPCC), a United Nations conference that began on Monday in the Spanish city of Valencia, will discuss how to deal with the effects of climate change.

The executive secretary in charge of the climate change framework agreement, Yvo de Boer, told the opening session that multi-lateral action is needed as soon as possible to tackle the effects of this phenomenon. "Not to do would be criminally irresponsible," he said.

He restated the scientific evidence for the phenomenon, whose effects will be felt in all nations and which he described as representing "a threat to our survival." He added that political will is needed to tackle the problem. He also praised the work of the group since its creation in 1988.

Speaking at the same meeting, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega,Spain's deputy prime minister, called for international commitment from all governments to tackle the issue especially in developing nations which she described as suffering a "gulf of inequality".

"These nations suffer more than anybody from the climate change's effects," although they contribute least pollution.

IPCC President Rajendra Pachauri said that the meeting represents a starting point for what the body, which will complete its 22nd year of service next year, must do in the future. He said the meeting's conclusion must have the quality expected by the IPCC, emphasizing the organization's excellence in pooling scientific knowledge and the relevance of this in world wide decision making.

The deputy secretary general of the World Meteorology Organization, Yan Hong, called for the strengthening of weather forecasting services, adding that extreme weather now represents 90 percent of natural disasters.

The meeting will approve a summary report, which will go forward to December's U.N. meeting in Bali, where it be used to prepare a strategy for 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases currently in force runs out.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Negotiators Complete Key Document for Policymakers on Climate Change

By ARTHUR MAX Associated Press Writer

Nov 16, 2007, 9:23 PM EST

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) --

Delegates from more than 140 countries agreed Friday on a scientific "instant guide" for policy makers, stating more forcefully than ever that climate change has begun and threatens to irreversibly alter the planet.

The document, summarizing the scientific consensus on human-induced climate change, will be distributed to delegates at a crucial meeting in Indonesia next month that is intended to launch a political process on international cooperation to control global warming.

Five days of sometimes tense negotiations ended before dawn with the approval of a 20-page summary of thousands of pages of data and computer projections compiled over the last six years by the Nobel Peace prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The report does not commit participating governments to any course of action but it is important because it is adopted by consensus, meaning those countries accept the underlying science and cannot disavow its conclusions. It provides a common scientific base line for the political talks.

"This is a groundbreaking document that will pave the way for deep emissions cuts by developing countries," said Stephan Singer, a climate specialist for the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The report describes how climate systems are changing and why, the effects it is having on mankind and ecosystems, and various scenarios of future impacts, depending on how quickly action is taken to slow the trend.

Delegates approved both the summary and a longer "synthesis report" Friday and the documents were to be released Saturday at a news conference attended by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," the summary begins, in a statement meant to dispel any skepticism about the reality of climate change, said participants in the meeting.

In a startling and much-debated conclusion, the document warns that human activity risks causing "abrupt or irreversible changes" on Earth, including the widespread extinction of species and a dramatic rise in sea levels before the end of this century, they said on condition of anonymity because the details are supposed to remain confidential until Saturday.

"I think overall it is a good and balanced document," said Bert Metz, an eminent Dutch scientist and one of the 40 authors of the draft. "In the end, a lot of people had to compromise," he said.

Though it contains no previously unpublished material, the summary pulls together the central elements of three lengthy reports the IPCC released earlier this year. Boiling down the 3,000 pages into about 20 for the summary was "quite a challenge," said Metz.

The agreement was seen as a personal triumph for the IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri of India, who presided with no-nonsense efficiency and bulldozed through compromise language. Pachauri, who will accept the IPCC's Nobel Peace prize in Oslo on Dec. 10 along with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, is expected to stand for re-election as head of the IPCC next year, delegates said.

Delegates said the talks this week were difficult, and sometimes bogged down for hours over a brief phrase.

The meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali starting Dec. 3 will discuss the next step in combating climate change after the measures adopted in the Kyoto Protocol expire in five years. Kyoto obliges 36 industrial countries to radically reduce their carbon emissions by 2012, but has no clear plan for what happens after that date.

Organizers say the new "road map" emerging from Bali should draw in the United States, which rejected the Kyoto accord and has tried to enlist other countries in voluntary schemes to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and invest in technology research.

Participants in the Valencia meeting said the U.S. delegation questioned the most hard-hitting statements in the summary that implied the urgency of reining in carbon emissions. But the final text retained key language, they said.

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