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"It is not too late": Greenpeace Ark centres on global action against climate change
"With each IPCC report the scale of the risks has grown. The last assessment in 2001 showed that hundreds of millions of people are likely to be at grave risk in the future from climate change. This week, we may see different numbers and sometimes different issues but the basics won't change. The hotter it gets, the greater the risk," said Stephanie Tunmore, Greenpeace International Climate & Energy Campaigner (1).
"The number of people affected by extreme weather and other natural disasters globally has nearly tripled in the last two decades, almost all in the developing world, affecting those who are most vulnerable and least able to cope. It is clear that unmitigated climate change will have absolutely unacceptable human costs."
In its February 2007 report "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis" (2), the IPCC expressed a greater than 90% certainty that most of the observed warming over the past half-century is caused by human activities and concluded, from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level, that warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
"As our knowledge and certainty about climate change grows we are left with no more excuses for sitting on our hands. We know what is happening, we know why and we know what to do about it," said Tunmore.
"Greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced very rapidly to keep global average temperature increase below 2 degrees C. Global emissions will have to be halved within 50 years and eliminated within a hundred. We need an energy revolution to dramatically transform our energy system and create a low carbon economy and that revolution requires Governments to stop talking and act now".
Greenpeace recently launched a comprehensive new report, Energy [R]evolution, which is a detailed blueprint for global energy provision, designed to achieve 50 per cent cut in global CO2 emissions by 2050, whilst allowing for increased energy consumption and economic growth.
Related Reports
- Energy [r]evolution - Executive Summary
25 January 2007
- Energy [r]evolution
25 January 2007
- Energy (R)evolution - Leaflet
26 September 2006
- Révolution énergétique: La voie à suivre pour un futur énergétique propre
26 September 2006
Notes to Editor
(1) http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/
(2) http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf
Contact information
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Stephanie Tunmore, Greenpeace International, +44 77 969 474 51
Mhairi Dunlop, Greenpeace International Communications, +44 7801 212 960
Katharine Mill, Greenpeace European Unit Communications, +32 496 156 229Photo Opportunity with the Greenpeace Ark between 13:00-14:00hrs Monday 2 April 2007 at Muntplein/Place de Monnaie, Brussels
The Ark, constructed from FSC timber and stands at over 40 feet long, houses an exhibition featuring Greenpeace's most recent documentation of climate change impacts from across the world focusing on the impact on human life, the causes of climate change and the solutions, and action that we can all take. Greenpeace International's award-winning videos on climate change impacts will also be shown inside the Ark.
Clipreel and Greenpeace's award-winning video documentation and stills of global Climate Change impacts (e.g. Amazon, Yellow River, Greenland) are available from Michael Nagasaka on +31 646 166 309 (video) and Franca Michienzi +31 653 819 255 (photo)
Latest Reports
See our new report "EU energy [r]evolution". Click on cover image to download pdf file (1MB).
