The 6.7m
high thermometer’s message: “Don’t cook the climate!” It will be
there for the next two weeks.
“For
years, governments have let us, their citizens, down by failing to get to grips
with the problem of climate change. They’ve left us increasingly exposed to the
biggest threat that civilisation has ever faced,” said Stephanie
Tunmore of Greenpeace International.
”In
Bali, Governments have to get down to business - and act on the basis of the
alarming scientific findings about climate change that they themselves approved
just two weeks ago (1). That means keeping the planet’s temperature as
far below 2ºC as possible. Millions, especially the world’s poorest
people, are already suffering from climate impacts such as storms and floods.”
In
order to keep temperatures at safe levels, global emissions must peak by 2015
and then start falling. In real terms, this means industrialised
countries committing to cut emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2020 and at
least 80 per cent by 2050. Globally, emissions must be halved by 2050.
This must happen under the Kyoto Protocol’s second phase, which comes into
force in 2012.
Greenpeace
wants governments at this meeting to set a two-year deadline to agree the
action plan we need for the very survival of the planet. This must be an action
plan that drastically cuts emissions from fossil fuels and ends deforestation,
a massive contributor to CO2 emissions. This is not negotiable.
In
Bali, Governments must agree the key elements
of this action plan and create a detailed agenda to ensure that negotiations
are concluded by 2009.
The
developed countries, responsible for over 80 per cent of all the man-made
emissions currently in the atmosphere - must also find ways to help the
developing world to deal with the impacts of climate change and to obtain clean
technology.
“We
also must see more developing countries agreeing to tackle their own
emissions,” said Yang Ailun of Greenpeace China.
The
2009 agreement must also see funding for adaptation, a mechanism for the
transfer of clean technology and a separate mechanism on tropical
deforestation, which contributes about one fifth of global emissions.
Greenpeace
believes it is possible to keep the worst impacts of climate change - such as
extreme weather events, water crises and increased hunger - from putting millions
of people at risk. This will take a revolution in the way we use and produce
energy, and a strong commitment to stop deforestation worldwide.
