01 Sep 2007 - Vienna,
Austria – Governments negotiating a new
global deal on climate change accepted a
safe range for emission reductions of harmful
climate pollution.
The talks in Vienna were designed to prepare
for the UN’s ministerial conference on climate
change in Bali in December. The 100 countries
meeting in the Austrian capital were to
agree on the level of emissions cuts that
are needed from industrialized countries.
The current targets agreed under the Kyoto
Protocol end in 2012. In Bali, environment
ministers need to formally launch the negotiations
that will conclude in 2009 with an agreement
on new binding, deeper cuts in heat-trapping
climate pollution.
Governments reluctantly accepted scientific
findings that these reductions must be in
the range of 25 to 40 per cent below 11000
levels by 2020. In Bali, they will have
to formally adopt this.
But the citizens of Canada, Japan, New
Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Switzerland
will have to pressure their governments
into action, as these were the countries
hindering progress in Vienna, according
to WWF.
“In 2007, we have seen a surge in public
support for political action against climate
change,” says Hans Verolme, Director of
WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme. “Smart
politicians will translate this tremendous
public support for a clean future into action
today.”
On 24 September, the UN is scheduled to
host a high-level ministerial meeting on
climate change.
"Presidents and prime ministers will
have to open the starting gate [at this
meeting] for serious, formal negotiations
to get emissions down," Verolme added.
"The UN is the right place where countries
can agree to joint strategies to deal with
the climate problem.”
Brian Thomson, Media Relations Officer
WWF International
