UNFCCC Secretary: At This Rate, We’re Not Going to Make It « FUTURISM NOW

UNFCCC Secretary: At This Rate, We’re Not Going to Make It « FUTURISM NOW: "UNFCCC Secretary: At This Rate, We're Not Going to Make It
By ShellyT, on September 11th, 2009

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said recently that at the current rate of addressing climate change, we will not make it. “Serious Climate Change is Equal to ‘Game Over’“. It’s assumed by ‘game over’ he means we’ll have to try to survive however we can, but civilization will not be around to help us. These remarks were made at a briefing with the media on the last day of the informal consultations in Bonn, in August 2009. “This is the way to a global disaster,” he said."

Mr. de Boer stressed that “a climate deal in Copenhagen this year is an unequivocal requirement to stop climate change from slipping out of control.

Our next best chance to do something serious: The Secretary-General’s Climate Change Summit in New York on September 22, 2009, presents an opportunity for world leaders to provide clear political guidance and to start mapping out a clear plan. A similar article came out yesterday, so we know we are running out of time, and the major Copenhagen meeting is in December. Here are Yvo de Boer’s statements from earlier this week:

“We need to see that leadership from rich countries,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, at the World Economic Forum. “Without rich country leadership, we will not get developing country engagement.”

Global leaders hope to reach agreement at a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in December, but de Boer said negotiations are moving so slowly that it will be impossible to reach a comprehensive deal by then. He said the Copenhagen meeting should aim instead to agree on “key cornerstones” of emissions cuts and how to finance them.

Key sticking points are how much the United States and other industrialized countries can cut emissions and how much developing economies can be expected to reduce the rapid growth of their own. Washington has said it is committed to reaching a deal as long as other major polluters such as China and India do their part as well.

“We need to get clarity in Copenhagen on what developing countries, especially major developing countries like China and India, will do to limit the growth of their emissions,” de Boer said at a news conference. “Without developing country engagement, it is impossible for countries like the United States to ratify a Copenhagen agreement.”

On Thursday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao indicated Beijing might take a tough line in Copenhagen. In a speech at the World Economic Forum, Wen told foreign business leaders that rich economies have a “historical responsibility” to cut emissions and that any deal should take into account countries’ levels of development.