Hope for climate deal as G8 recognises warming impacts
Date: 9-Jul-2009
The Australian Conservation Foundation is encouraged by the G8 recognition of the broad scientific view that a global temperature increase should not exceed 2°C and now urges progress towards a strong global climate deal at Copenhagen.
ACF climate change program manager, Tony Mohr said that the G8 declaration ‘Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future’ was a welcome step forward but falls short of the hard commitments needed to ensure the world avoids dangerous climate change.
“ACF is encouraged by the G8’s recognition of climate science but now urges faster progress to achieve a strong global climate deal at the Copenhagen climate talks in December,” Mr Mohr said.
“The most recent climate science suggests a global temperature increase needs to be kept well below 2°C to avoid dangerous climate change.
“If the G8 commitment to restraining warming to no more than 2°C is reflected in the Copenhagen agreement, Australia should deliver on its commitment to a 25 per cent reduction in its emissions,” he said.
In 2007 the IPCC found that to limit warming to 2.0 to 2.4 degrees, developed countries would need to reduce emissions by 80 – 95 per cent against 1990 levels.
“The agreement that developed countries should reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 is a welcome step forward, but the climate science finds that deeper reductions are required in order to limit warming to 2 degrees,” Mr Mohr said.
“The missing piece in a successful climate agreement is funding from developed to developing countries to ensure a fair deal.
“As a first step towards a fair climate deal, Prime Minister Rudd should support Prime Minister Brown’s call for a US$100 billion dollar fund to assist developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.
“The support by the G8 for nuclear power is rejected by the ACF as a technology too dirty, too dangerous and too expensive to be a real solution to climate change,” he said.