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Failure on climate treaty is security risk, says Pacific

0:41 November 18, 2009Kiribati, Marshall Is, Pacific Press Releases, Solomon Is, Tuvalu3 comments

Pacific Press Release – World Environmental Journalists

Concerned about threats to their security, a group of Pacific island developing nations took the floor of the UN General Assembly today to demand adoption of a legally-binding treaty at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December.Failure on a Copenhagen Climate Treaty Is a Security Risk, Pacific Islands Tell UN General Assembly

16 November 2009 (New York) – Concerned about threats to their security, a group of Pacific island developing nations took the floor of the UN General Assembly today to demand adoption of a legally-binding treaty at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December.

Speaking on behalf of the 11 vulnerable small Pacific islands represented at the UN, Ambassador Stuart Beck from the island nation of Palau stated that “flimsy moral sentiments at Copenhagen are no substitute for legally-binding treaties and do little to ensure the security of the most vulnerable among us.”

Rejecting recent calls made by some of the world’s biggest polluters for a delay in taking decisive and legally-binding action on climate change, the Pacific Island states told the 192-member world body that the political choices for Copenhagen have already been outlined in negotiation texts.

According to Ambassador Beck, “the choice before leaders at Copenhagen will be if the global community has sufficient political will to ensure our security through legal instruments with serious, specific action on emissions by all nations, or if we will fail ourselves and future generations” by delaying decisions and risking prolonged deadlocks.

UN member states were told by a recent report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that climate change poses specific security risks to vulnerable countries. .

Ambassador Beck highlighted that climate-related relocation has already happened in the Pacific and that entire nations might disappear, stating that” we are talking about the survival of nations, people and unique cultures.” Some Pacific island nations, including Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, are only one or two meters above sea level, and the UN report confirmed that climate change impacts pose a serious threat to their statehood

On behalf of the Pacific small islands, Palau Ambassador Beck noted that “the linkage between climate change and security needs to be a permanent focus of deliberations” at the UN, including examination by the Security Council. In June this year, the Pacific island nations spearheaded the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the security implications of climate change.

Also addressing the UN, Ambassador Collin Beck from the Solomon Islands registered “deep concern from public statements” seeking to lower expectations for concluding a legal instrument at the Copenhagen meeting, stating that “those on the frontline will continue to suffer on a daily basis as we continue to postpone action,” and that global leaders “keep having summits on climate change, and yet we have not lived up to what we have said.”

The Pacific islands are part of the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States, which ended recent climate talks in Barcelona with a call to conclude binding legal instruments at Copenhagen. The island states have called for global warming to be limited to well below 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. However, large polluters, through the Major Economies Forum, support a 2 degree goal, which would risk substantial impacts to vulnerable nations.

ENDS

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3 comments:

  1. Barry Larkman, 18. November 2009, 20:07

    The world will not last until 2050, we must determine to cut fossil fuels by 80% by 2020.
    Maxwell Energy Corporation Ltd., offered NZ clean burning Biofuels the day John Key and Jerry Browlee, who have shares in the new oil wells in NZ, so not interested in obiding by the Kyoto Protocol signed by PM Helen Clark. The National Party has set up every man woman and child carbon tax penalties of amost $100,000 each, because of Key, English & Browlee joint greed an stupidity.

     
  2. M Btok, 21. November 2009, 14:09

    Reject Copenhagen
    Kevin Gaudet and Maureen Bader, National Post Published: November 20, 2009
    What do Uganda, Burundi, Sudan and Djibouti have in common? They are on the list of 49 countries that would receive billions of dollars every year from Canadian families as part of a new global-warming agreement proposed by the United Nations. The UN also wants to impose new taxes on industry that would increase energy costs and kill jobs. Prime Minister Stephen Harper should demonstrate global leadership by rejecting calls to sign on to this misguided and expensive boondoggle — even if it means standing alone.
    In December, Canadian delegates will participate in a 192-nation conference in Copenhagen to hash out a scheme to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the failed international accord aimed at reducing carbon dioxide CO2 emissions. Proponents of the meetings in Copenhagen foresee a massive transfer of cash from developed to less-developed nations so the industrialized West can atone for its ongoing climate crimes. UN documents indicate that this program will impose a onetime cost of at least US$250-billion. Other reports indicate the annualized cost could grow to as much as $100-billion. Canada’s required contribution would be no less than $3-billion per year.The Copenhagen scheme will also promote a new international market regime for trading CO2 called cap-and-trade. What it really amounts to is cap-and-tax.As Mr. Harper and his Cabinet colleagues deliberate they should understand that any effort to impose yet more energy taxes in Canada would redistribute scarce resources from productive to unproductive activities reduce wages kill jobs and leave families shivering in the dark with their budgets running on empty. Prime Minister. Harper can show leadership by taking a stand against all this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU

    http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/5670-lord-moncktons-warning-about-a-un-copenhagen-climate-change-treaty-goes-viral

     
  3. Paul Revere, 21. November 2009, 14:11

    http://www.infowars.com
    Pat Buchanan correctly defined the Climate Bill for what it really is, not just a new tax on the American people, but a complete transfer of power and wealth to a global government that is using the manufactured fear of global warming to grease the skids for total domination.
    Referring to the passage of the climate bill and global warming in general Buchanan said that the legislation was passed through the use of fear and that More and more scientists are coming forward to say this is a hoax and a scam which is designed to transfer wealth and power from the private sector to the government sector and from the government of the United States to a world government. Which is what we’re going to get in Copenhagen when we get this Kyoto two agreement.
    The former senior advisor to three U.S. presidents accused the Obama administration of hyping the apocalyptic myth that the oceans will rise and that cities will be underwater in order to ram through the legislation! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU

    http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/5670-lord-moncktons-warning-about-a-un-copenhagen-climate-change-treaty-goes-viral

     

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