3 December 2012
CONTACT: Contact: Michael Crocker, michael.crocker@aosis.org, +
1 978 968 9499
DOHA—Following the
Alliance of Small Island States’ (AOSIS) High Level Meeting on Sunday,
ministers and heads of delegation from the coalition of 43 countries that are
highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, together released the
following statement reaffirming the group’s positions at the start of the final
week of UN climate talks here:
“We begin the final
week of negotiations in Doha with the sober recognition that time is running
out to prevent the loss of entire nations and other calamities in our
membership and around the world.
“Since we last met
in Durban, many of our countries have endured numerous extreme, and in some
cases deadly, weather events, such as prolonged droughts, heat waves, floods,
and superstorms—not to mention accelerating sea level rise and increasing ocean
acidification.
“If the onslaught of disasters is
not enough to convince the world to act, a series of scientific reports
released immediately before the start of the talks should leave no doubt:
without bold action to close the ambition gap we are on track for 3-5 degree
Celsius rise in temperature and a global catastrophe. Another analysis that
showed limiting global warming below 2 degrees C – or even to below 1.5
degrees remains technically and economically feasible, but only with political
ambition backed by rapid action. That must start here in Doha.
“The package AOSIS
agreed to in Durban last year was contingent upon immediately raising
mitigation ambition in the short-term. Our positions all derive from this
climate imperative:
“First, the
second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol should be for a length of
five-years to avoid locking-in insufficient mitigation ambition and
provisional application remains the strongest available legal option for
avoiding a legal gap between the first and second commitment periods.
“Second, the use of surplus units
from the first commitment period must be strictly limited in the second
commitment period, and we must avoid the creation of new surplus at the outset
of the second commitment period to protect the environmental integrity of the
treaty.
“Third, parties must reaffirm that
legally binding QELROS inscribed in Annex B for the second commitment period
are required for all Annex I Parties wishing to participate in the Kyoto
Protocol flexible mechanisms.
“Furthermore, those few Annex 1
countries that are not parties to the Kyoto Protocol must also take more
ambitious and comparable mitigation commitments under the LCA.
“Lastly, here in Doha, we must
have a decision to ramp up mitigation ambition in 2013 under the Workplan, by
agreeing to activities that enable countries to take more ambitious action and
close the ambition gap.
“The science is clear: further
delay would mean the opportunity to avert a global calamity would be
irrevocably lost.”
No comments:
Post a Comment