Bonn, Germany, July 2001 — With Ministers and
diplomats meeting this week to resume talks on climate change, IUCN
- The World Conservation Union, the world's largest conservation
organization urges Governments to keep the Kyoto Protocol process
alive by agreeing to rules for combating global warming.
In calling on Governments to act now, IUCN Director General Achim
Steiner says: "We are faced with an alarming picture of changes.
Coral bleaching, disappearing species, more frequent floods, fire
and drought are just a foreshadowing of the changes likely to come.
Millions of people are at risk of losing their livelihoods,
increasing human vulnerability. The impact of climate change is
most urgent in countries with the least means to respond, but no
Government can afford to ignore such a threat."
After negotiations stalled last November in The Hague, this
latest round of talks in Bonn is a critical opportunity for
Governments to finalize the Protocol signed four years ago and pave
the way for its rapid ratification in 2002. Earlier this year, the
US Administration backed away from the agreement,
questioning the science of climate change. Nonetheless, the American
public and scientific community has sent an unequivocal message that
climate change is real and requires swift action.
"IUCN welcomees the leadership of the European Union on all Governments to honor
their responsibility to the global community," says Steiner. The need for future developing country
commitments is not an excuse for industrialized countries to delay action today. Suprisingly,
developing countries such as China have done more to reduce emissions than many
industrialized countries.
According to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), changes in the climate over the last 50 years
can be largely attributed to the burning of fossil fuels and
deforestation. The report presents compelling evidence of changing
rainfall and storm patterns, melting glaciers, declining populations
of species, higher temperatures in rising coastal waters and
diminishing forests in response to a warming climate.
"We are at a decisive moment. Governments must reconcile their
differences in Bonn and show their political will to tackle the most
serious environmental and socio-economic challenge facing humanity
in the 21st century," Director General Steiner concludes. The Protocol is just a first step in a process that will involve a long-term commitment by Governments, civil society and the private
sector to address climate change. "For the sake of nature and the
communities that depend on it, we must keep the Kyoto process
alive," says Steiner.
IUCN - The World Conservation Union was founded in
1948 and brings together 79 states, 112 government agencies, 760
NGOs, 37 affiliates, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 141
countries in a unique worldwide partnership. Its mission is to
influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to
conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that
any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically
sustainable. Within the framework of global conventions IUCN has
helped over 75 countries to prepare and implement national
conservation and biodiversity strategies. IUCN has approximately
1000 staff, most of who are located in its 42 regional and country
offices while 100 work at its Headquarters in Gland, Switzerland.
IUCN is legally registered as "The International Union for
the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources" and has observer
status at the UN.
For more information contact:
Brett Orlando, IUCN Climate Change Focal Point, tel: +41 22 999
0290; mobile: +41 79 416 7240
Jeff McNeely, IUCN Chief Scientist, tel: +41 22 999 0284
