Press release - April 26, 2010
As ministers from the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, China, and India) meet today in Cape Town, Greenpeace displayed banners reading “climate change needs BASIC leadership” on a boat directly opposite the 12 Apostles Hotel in Camps Bay where the conference is taking place. Greenpeace activists from BASIC countries held banners with the same message outside the hotel as ministers gathered to meet.
Greenpeace is highlighting the urgent need for the BASIC group of countries, four of the most influential emerging economies in the world, to take climate leadership in the run up to the next UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year.
"Climate change is amongst the greatest challenges the world has ever faced. As influential countries within the climate negotiations, the BASIC bloc can help move them forward. It is critical that these countries take this opportunity to decide on common positions that would lead to a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate treaty being signed" stated Siddharth Pathak, Political Officer for Greenpeace India.
At the meeting, which lasts until 27 April, Greenpeace urges the BASIC bloc to ensure it:
- Delivers a detailed framework indicating how support to the countries most vulnerable to climate change will be delivered through technology transfers, finance and capacity building.
- Agrees on a plan to help rebuild trust in the climate negotiations, and to work with partners from the rest of developing world, as well as with developed countries to overcome the main stumbling blocks in the current negotiations.
- Indicates how it plans to overcome the so-called "gigatonne gap" The BASIC countries should raise their mitigation ambition and exert pressure on other countries, particularly the developed countries to do the same in order to plug the gap between the current emission reduction ambition of countries and what science requires them to do thereby bringing the world towards a safer climate trajectory.
- Takes the lead in ensuring that the final outcome of the international negotiations will be "legally binding"
- Takes the lead on insisting that the US$30 billion identified at the Copenhagen climate summit for short-term funding to tackle global deforestation, climate change adaptation and mitigation is rapidly paid out to the most vulnerable countries
"There is no question that to effectively tackle the climate crisis, developing countries must follow a green, low-carbon pathway; BASIC leadership is crucial to achieving this" said Vinuta Gopal, Climate and Energy Campaigns Manager, Greenpeace India. "By committing to a green future and by ending deforestation, the BASICs would not only fend off climate change but would also strengthen their call for industrialised countries to accept the bulk of responsibility for the current climate crisis."
For further information, contact
Onsite in Cape Town:
Fiona Musana, Communications Director, Greenpeace Africa
Ph: +27 79 512 9381
Email:
Melita Steele, Climate Campaigner, Greenpeace Africa
Ph +27 725 608 703
Email:
In India:
Siddharth Pathak, Policy Officer- Climate and Energy, Greenpeace India
Ph: +91 95-60-84-48-48
Email:
Shashwat Raj, Media Officer, Greenpeace India
Ph: +91 96-86-86-1974
Email:
In Amsterdam:
Jo Kuper, Communications, Greenpeace International
Ph: +31 6 46 16 20 39
Email:
Images and footage available:
For photos contact:
John Novis, Head of Images, Greenpeace International
Ph: +44 7801 615 889
Email:
For video footage contact:
Lucy Campbell-Jackson, Video Producer, Greenpeace International
Ph: +31 634738790
Email: