BirdLife’s 6 key “asks” for the Durban Climate Conference
BirdLife International (Nature Seychelles in BirdLife in Seychelles) has called for urgent political action to be taken at the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Durban, South Africa. BirdLife wants the world’s governments to commit to the deep and fair greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to limit dangerous climate change to a level that gives people and ecosystems a fighting chance to adapt.
“Building on the Cancun Agreements, COP 17 must lay the groundwork for a fair, ambitious and legally binding global climate change regime”, said Melanie Heath, BirdLife’s Head of Policy. “Parties to the Convention should secure a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and thus preserve the only legally binding instrument with emission reduction targets and timetables.”
“COP-17 is taking place in Africa, and needs to listen to the voices of Africa and deliver for its people”, Melanie Heath asserted. “We need measures and finance in place to help the poorest and most vulnerable adapt. Ecosystem-based adaptation is one piece of the jigsaw. Healthy ecosystems and biodiversity support human lives and livelihoods. They play important roles in sequestering carbon and helping society adapt to climate change.”
These are BirdLife’s 6 key “asks” for the Durban Conference:
1. Secure a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and secure a mandate to negotiate a legally binding instrument to be adopted no later than 2015;
2. Agree modalities and guidance for halting emissions from deforestation and degradation by 2020, whilst safeguarding biodiversity and livelihoods;
3. Agree robust and transparent rules for accounting for emissions from the land use, land use change and forestry sector that reflect emissions actually released to the atmosphere;
4. Account fully for emissions from bioenergy;
5. Agree modalities for national adaptation planning that deliver to vulnerable groups and ecosystems;
6. Establish a pathway to deliver adequate finance to the new Green Climate Fund from 2013.
For more detail on BirdLife’s 6 “asks”, click here for the BirdLife Policy Briefing
