Ecologists raised the alarm on Monday over global warming as environment ministers from more than 30 countries met in Warsaw ahead of December’s UN Climate summit focused on slashing greenhouse gases.
“We’re ringing alarm bells — the UN summit in Poznan must deliver a deal that will keep global warming below 2°C to the end of this century,” Kaisa Kosonen from the global environmental group Greenpeace told reporters.
“Five years from now will be too late,” she said as activists rang bells outside of the Warsaw hotel where ministers were gathered.
“We are currently on a pathway that implies temperatures could increase up to 7°C [by the end of the century],” Kosonen said at an earlier press conference. “There is no more time for small steps.”
Greenpeace and the Global Climate Initiative want the UN Poznan summit to agree on binding carbon dioxide emissions cuts of between 25 percent and 40 percent — from 1990 levels — by 2020.
EU leaders are working on a package to cut carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 levels by 20 percent by 2020.
Environmentalists insist the consequences of failure to agree on terms to deeply limit carbon dioxide emissions could include widespread flooding from rising sea-levels as polar icecaps melt and increased morbidity from heatwaves, floods and droughts.
Switching to green energy technologies based on solar, wind, biofuels and hydro power as well as increasing energy efficiency makes both environmental and economic sense, Kosonen said.
“The amount of money world governments have pooled now in the financial crisis is huge and we have no guarantee it isn’t being wasted — it would take just a fraction to spearhead renewable energy technologies,” she said.
World leaders will meet in Poznan, western Poland for the UN Climate Change conference dubbed COP 14 from Dec. 1 to Dec. 14.
Critics say the financial crisis makes it very difficult for industry to make the necessary big investments in clean energy.
“We think this [climate] package is consistent with solving the financial crisis ... At the moment, people are focused on the economic crisis, but our package is part of the solution,” Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.
“Fighting climate change means investment in energy efficiency, promoting renewable sources and providing incentives to stimulate the economy and contribute to growth,” he said.
The EU also argues that moving to a low-carbon economy will create jobs and reduce the bloc’s exposure to volatile prices of fossil fuels such as oil and coal that lead to global warming.
“Nobody has said we should cut down our efforts [because of the financial crisis]. They all said we should continue. We need to send a strong signal from Poznan on fighting climate change,” Dimas said.
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