BASIC countries call for acceleration of UN climate Convention process

Crossposted from Green Idol Blog

Greenpeace welcomes the position taken by Ministers of the BASIC group of countries(Brazil, China, India and South Africa), who met yesterday in New Delhi, to continue negotiations on a fair and ambitious climate agreement within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, Greenpeace emphasised that such an agreement needs to be legally binding in order to ensure its implementation.

In their joint statement, ministers from the four leading emerging economies called for meetings of the climate convention’s working groups on long-term co-operative action and the Kyoto Protocol to be held in March 2010. They also want the working groups to meet at least five times before the next major UN climate conference which is scheduled to start on 29 November 2010, in Mexico.

The Ministers underlined that UN climate talks occupy a central position and they called for all negotiations to be conducted in an inclusive and transparent manner. They also outlined their desire for better South-South scientific co-operation and support for vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change.Greenpeace is encouraged by the willingness of the BASIC group to support vulnerable countries, both by ensuring their participation in open and transparent negotiations and by providing technological and or financial support.

However, Greenpeace is calling on the BASIC countries to make this support more tangible by the time of its next meeting that the South African government is to host in April 2010.

Greenpeace also noted the further consolidation of the BASIC countries as a group and urges them to assume the responsibilities that go with an alliance of such influential economic powers.
Though the BASIC countries demonstrating leadership in furthering negotiations on a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, Greenpeace wants them to exert pressure on industrialised counties tourgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make their own appropriate contributions in emission reductions.

“Continued inaction by governments would allow global warming to engulf us all,” said Siddharth Pathak, Climate and Energy Policy Officer, Greenpeace India. “If we are to keep this demon at bay and avoid dangerous climate change, industrialised countries must cut their emissions together, 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and provide massive financial and technological support to enable developing nations as a whole to reduce their projected growth in emissions by 15-30% over the same timescale. It’s not easy but the consequences of failure would be among our worst nightmares,” he said.

IPCC Facts and spin

Dear Friends,

The media has been buzzing about the IPCC's Himalayan glacier and Netherlands Sea level rise controversies.

The international climate panel headed by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for a ground-breaking report on climate change. Several small errors have now surfaced in the 3,000-page report.

If you're wondering what the news reports mean for climate change, here are some pieces of information and answers to the questions in your mind.

What is IPCC?

The IPCC is not, as many people seem to think, a large organization. In fact, it has only 10 full-time staff in its secretariat at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, plus a few staff in four technical support units that help the chairs of the three IPCC working groups and the national greenhouse gas inventories group. The actual work of the IPCC is done by unpaid volunteers – thousands of scientists at universities and research institutes around the world who contribute as authors or reviewers to the completion of the IPCC reports. A large fraction of the relevant scientific community is thus involved in the effort. The three working groups are:

Working Group 1 (WG1), which deals with the physical climate science basis, as assessed by the climatologists.

Working Group 2 (WG2), which deals with impacts of climate change on society and ecosystems, as assessed by social scientists, ecologists, etc.

Working Group 3 (WG3), which deals with mitigation options for limiting global warming, as assessed by energy experts, economists, etc.

The Controversies and the facts:

Himalayan glaciers: In a regional chapter on Asia in Volume 2, written by authors from the region, it was erroneously stated that 80% of Himalayan glacier area would very likely be gone by 2035.

The problem here is not that the IPCC’s glacier experts made an incorrect prediction. The problem is that a Working Group 2 chapter, instead of relying on the proper IPCC projections from their WG1 colleagues, cited an unreliable outside source in one place. Fixing this error involves deleting two sentences on page 493 of the Working Group 2 report.

Sea level in the Netherlands: The IPCC report states that “The Netherlands is an example of a country highly susceptible to both sea-level rise and river flooding because 55% of its territory is below sea level”. This sentence was provided by a Dutch government agency – the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which has now published a correction stating that the sentence should have read “55 per cent of the Netherlands is at risk of flooding; 26 per cent of the country is below sea level, and 29 per cent is susceptible to river flooding”.

Needless to say, the actual number mentioned in the report has no bearing on any IPCC conclusions and has nothing to do with climate science, and it is questionable whether it should even be counted as an IPCC error.

Do the U.N. climate panel's errors mean there is no threat from climate change?

No, the dire threat from climate change is not in question. The panel's errors were only related to the intensity of climate change. There are in fact only two real mistakes that have been found so far and neither point to any change in the basic premise of human induced climate change. [ "U.N. climate panel admits Dutch sea level flaw," Reuters, 13 February 2010 http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE61C1V920100213 ]

In some media reports the impression has been given that even the fundamental results of climate change science are now in question, such as whether humans are in fact changing the climate, causing glacier melt, sea level rise and so on. The IPCC does not carry out primary research, and hence any mistakes in the IPCC reports do not imply that any climate research itself is wrong. A reference to a poor report or an editorial lapse by IPCC authors obviously does not undermine climate science. Doubting basic results of climate science based on the recent claims against the IPCC is particularly ironic since none of the real or supposed errors being discussed are even in the Working Group 1 report, where the climate science basis is laid out.

For over two decades, scientists have consistently found that climate change is happening, and it's caused by human activity. ["New proof that man has caused global warming," Times Online UK, 18 February 2009http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article516033.ece ]

Why is there so much furore about these errors?

To those familiar with the science and the IPCC’s work, the current media discussion is in large part simply absurd and surreal. Journalists who have never even peeked into the IPCC report are now outraged that one wrong number appears on page 493 of Volume 2.

Over the past 20 years, the U.N. climate panel has been attacked again and again by the fossil fuel industry and by politicians who are determined to discredit climate change science and continue on an unsustainable development pathway which would ensure dire consequences for this earth. ["The doubters do disservice to climate facts," The Globe and Mail, 18 February 2009http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/the-doubters-do-disservice-to-climate-facts/article1472224/ ]

Are the Himalayan glaciers melting or not?

In 2007, the U.N. climate panel reported that Himalayan glaciers might vanish by 2035. The specific year turned out to be based on a flawed study, and the panel has corrected the error.

["UN climate panel admits Dutch sea level flaw", Times of India/AFP, 15 February 2010 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/UN-climate-panel-admits-Dutch-sea-level-flaw/articleshow/5574581.cms]
The Himalayan glaciers are retreating, but the exact rate of retreat is still uncertain. India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh was one of the first to argue that the 2035 forecast was "not based on an iota of scientific evidence," but he confirms the Himalayan glaciers "are indeed receding and the rate is cause for great concern." ["U.N. panel re-examines Himalayan glacier thaw report," Reuters, 18 January 2010 http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H3VE20100118 ]

Who will be impacted by climate change?

Everyone. Lesser developed countries and small island states will be hit hardest and fastest. ["Island states stake bold claim at UN climate talks," AFP, 11 December 2009 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3BrJHqiKUM_tiAQ8EAQc_H_qEsg ]

But rich nations are not immune to the violent weather, drought, disease, famine, mass migrations, and wars that will be caused if we don't stop climate change. ["Pentagon review to address climate change for the first time," The Hill, January 30, 2010http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/78855-pentagon-review-to-address-climate-change-for-the-first-time ]

What is my personal call on climate change?

The science is clear. Climate change is real, is happening now and is caused by people. The solution is clean energy, smart use of our power and forest protection.

If enough of us take action, we can stop climate change.

Since lots of people are wondering about the media stories, please spread this information to your family, friends, classmates and to everyone who can strengthen the global climate movement.

Thanks a billion!

Disclaimer: The views expressed are my personal views and are not related to IYCN.

Climate Action- Right Now!

Well friends its official now, all the hopes of Hopenhagen have gone low because nothing fabulous came out of the conference halls of COP15 as many of us expected. 45000 energetic environmentalists and climate campaigners at Copenhagen, millions across the various cities on the globe are all more than frustrated, angry and sad to hear or read or discuss about the Copenhagen accord and for their useless efforts to change the thoughts of the brainless political leaders through their campaigns in the past few months. Leaders have failed to deliver the agreement they promised, the agreement we need to avoid catastrophic climate change that affects everyone, the agreement we need to help those already facing the risks of climate change. Everybody knows that the overnight Copenhagen accord stint was not because the leaders felt that climate change is the biggest problem facing humanity or to emphasize their political will to urgently combat climate change but to just save their face and their own interests. But one thing is crystal clear Copenhagen did not deliver what was necessary. Instead of taking a step forward, they took a couple of them backward.

Now the question arises... What next? Curse the world leaders for not sealing the deal or start our preparations to corner them at least at COP16. Let’s not lose all the hopes, energy and enthusiasm. Let us prove the world that the harder a ball is hit against the ground, the more it bounces. Its time to plan for a climate renaissance. Its time for us to unite all the people who are like minded and are ready to wage a war on climate change, without bothering about treaties and protocols. Its time for us to explain, confuse or convince the people who don’t believe in climate change to join us. Its time for us to reach out to the youth of India and lead a bigger climate revolution across the nation, continent and the globe. Its time for all of us to realize that this time is past urgent and that we have to act now to save those trillions of families who are to suffer. Its time for us to get the civil society better and mobilize them to demand justice of our leaders for the sake of those lives at stake. Its time for us to regroup, reenergize and reemerge as a stronger movement. A movement that despite momentary weariness will persevere for as long as it takes to see justice come.

Yes, its time for us to have satyagrahas and protests all across the world and start our campaigns so that a fair, binding and ambitious deal comes out of COP16.

Well after all this I can’t wait for tomorrow anymore. I am ready to bang my head against the wall till it falls though it is not that easy. I am ready, right now, to be the soldier who doesn’t mind going down fighting to save the future of all his brothers, sisters and future generations …. What about U?