The UN climate talks in Copenhagen have ended with a weak Accord being accepted by most parties, but the present ambition is far too low to tackle dangerous climate change, WWF said today.<\/p>\n
"Copenhagen was at the brink of failure due to poor leadership combined with an unconvincing level of ambition", said Kim Carstensen, Leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.<\/p>\n
WWF analysed the conference outcome against 10 performance criteria, finding that none of the objectives needed to fulfil the aim of keeping average global warming below the 2 degree C high risk level had been met, although some had
\nbeen partly fulfilled. <\/p>\n
"Well meant but half-hearted pledges to protect our planet from dangerous climate change are simply not sufficient to address a crisis that calls for completely new ways of collaboration across rich and poor countries," said Mr Carstensen.<\/p>\n
"Millions of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars and a wealth of lost opportunities lie in the difference between rhetoric and reality on climate change action."<\/p>\n
Politicians around the world seem to be in agreement that we must stay below the 2 degree C threshold of unacceptable risks of climate change – in theory. However, practically what leaders have put on the table adds up to 3 degrees C of warming or more, according to WWF estimates.<\/p>\n
Attention will now shift to follow up negotiations which need to fill out many details in the often vague accord – and, on a more positive note, to a host of initiatives by countries, cities, companies and communities that are starting to build low carbon economies from the base up.<\/p>\n
The draft Copenhagen Accord is a long way from developing into a legally binding framework for decisive action on climate change.<\/p>\n
"We needed a treaty now and at best, we will be working on one in half a year’s time," said Carstensen.<\/p>\n
"What we have after two years of negotiation is a half-baked text of unclear substance. None of the political obstacles to effective climate action have been solved with the possible exception of the beginnings of financial flows.<\/p>\n
The lack of clarity is illustrated by a call for a global peak in emissions "as soon as possible", in contrast to the 2007 call of the IPCC for emissions to peak in 2017.<\/p>\n
Emissions reductions pledges remain far lower than what is required, with a leaked analysis by the UNFCCC secretariat showing a shortfall that would lead to 3 degrees C of warming even without considering extensive loopholes.<\/p>\n
"We are disappointed but the story continues," said Carstensen. "Civil society was excluded from these final negotiations to an extraordinary degree, and that was felt during the concluding days in Copenhagen."<\/p>\n
"We can assure the world, however, that WWF and other elements of civil society will continue engaging in every step of further negotiations."<\/p>\n
Christian Teriete, Email: cteriete@wwf.org.hk, Phone: +852-9310-6805<\/p>\n
Kim Carstensen, Email: k.carstensen@wwf.dk, Phone: +45-40-343635<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN climate talks in Copenhagen have ended with a weak Accord being accepted by most parties, but the present ambition is far too low to tackle dangerous climate change, WWF said today. "Copenhagen was at the brink of failure due to poor leadership combined with an unconvincing level of ambition", said Kim Carstensen, Leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}