"Copenhagen talks must ensure climate justice"

Thursday, 10 December 2009 08:04

Climate Justice is the ‘make or break’ trigger that will make the historic conference succeed or fail.

This is the main message from the Road to Copenhagen Conference hosted by Mary Robinson, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Margot Wallström in Malmö, Sweden.

More than 150 participants, representing civil society, business and legislators, gathered at the Road to Copenhagen Conference to explore the necessary drivers for ensuring a Copenhagen climate change agreement based on climate justice: human rights, technological diffusion and the financial mechanisms ensuring fair burden sharing. A final set of recommendations emerging from the process was delivered directly to policy-makers today via the U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer.

“Copenhagen must mark a paradigm shift, away from the ‘us vs. them’ and towards a ‘One Earth’ future,” said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Vice President of the Club of Madrid. “This historic conference must deliver on the human dimension of climate change, build on the principles of burden sharing and ‘polluters pay,’ and on improved access to adequate, sustainable technology and predictable financial resources for developing countries to be able to ensure mitigation and adaptation.”

The conference stressed that the shared vision for long-term cooperation must make clear reference to the respect of human rights and gender equality as a core guiding principle of the post 2012 agreement.

 “We need a fair deal. And in a fair deal rich countries must contribute with at least 100 billion euros each year from 2020 and onwards”, said Gro Harlem Brundtland to the Norwegian daily Aftenposten.

Road to Copenhagen Conference is a joint initiative of the Club of Madrid, GLOBE Europe and Respect Table which generated ‘ownership of the negotiations process’ amongst people across the world beyond those directly involved in closed, government-to-government negotiations: civil society, business, students, legislators. The initiative made it possible for people from these sectors of society to contribute their personal recommendations to the global climate deal through online and in-person debates.

 

Sources: Official press release, Aftenposten