De Boer: “Barcelona climate talks need to make clear progress”

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:26

Yesterday (2 November 2009), the last negotiating session before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December was kicked off in Barcelona, Spain.

The meeting in Barcelona (2 to 6 November) follows on the UN Climate Change Talks in Bangkok (28 September to 9 October), which saw increasing convergence, streamlining of the negotiating text and narrowing down of options for a comprehensive, fair and effective international climate change deal.

“The Barcelona talks need to make clear progress and put in place a solid foundation for success at Copenhagen,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer.

Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard was asked to comment on the foot-dragging attitude of the US towards the climate summit in Copenhagen. Here she stated that she could not understand how an American president can go to Oslo, only a few hundred kilometers from Copenhagen, to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for his ability to create new hope, and then at the same time send an empty handed delegation to the Copenhagen climate summit. “I know that for the time being there are heavy negotiations going on in the Senate. But the US is not the only country in the world that has to struggle with these things on the home front,” she said. She added that “striking a deal is not easy now. But it will not be easier next year or the year after.”

Heads of state and government meeting in New York earlier this year agreed that in Copenhagen, clarity must be provided on ambitious emission reduction targets of industrialised countries, as well as the need for nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing countries with the necessary support.

A beacon to guide discussions is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s finding that an aggregate emission reduction by industrialised countries of between 25 to 40 per cent over 1990 levels would be required by 2020, and that global emissions would need to be reduced by at least 50 per cent by 2050, in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

“The targets of industrialised countries that are presently on the table are clearly not ambitious enough,” Yvo de Boer said. “We therefore need more ambitious targets on an individual basis and urgent progress on the negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol,” he added.

More than 4,000 participants, including delegates from 181 countries, are participating in the UN Climate Change Talks in Barcelona.

Source: Berlingske Tidende, Denmark and UNFCCC