Greens Set Out Key Proposals for COP15
COPENHAGEN --As Green Party members of parliament, ministers of governments and national leaders from around the world converge on Copenhagen, the Green Party of Canada has set out its recommended negotiating position for Canada.
“As the only nation in the world to both sign and ratify Kyoto, confirming its status as international law, and then to repudiate it and undermine its objectives, Canada has become a global outcast,” said leader Elizabeth May. “We must repair our international reputation and assume our responsibility to the rest of the world and future generations.”
Canada’s government must support the following steps, re-engaging with the world as a forward-looking bridge between the industrialized and developing world:
- Confirm that the architecture of the Kyoto Protocol continue into the next commitment period, commencing January 1, 2013;
- Accept legally binding hard targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 90% below 1990 levels by 2050;
- Support significant allocation of funds to developing countries to assist in aggressive adaptation programmes;
- Support financial assistance, and provide meaningful Canadian financial support, for mitigation efforts in developing countries and in particular for tropical forest protection and enhancement, in particular the Emergency Rainforest Protection Package developed under the auspices of HRH The Prince Charles, in consultation with other governments and the World Bank;
- Ensure that the principle of equity in the distribution of GHG reduction targets be respected and that, no matter what the formula accepted, the cumulative impact of all global programmes ensure that global GHG emission levels peak and begin their decline no later than 2015.
“Only meaningful action in the next five years can avert a century of devastating catastrophic climatic impacts that would imperil civilization itself,” noted Climate critic Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu.
“As a journalist, with decades of experience covering global environmental summits, I know that the time for ‘good, first steps’ is long past. Now we demand action,” said Jacques Rivard, respected Radio Canada environmental specialist and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
Jacques Rivard and Elizabeth May are both in Copenhagen for the Climate Change Negotiations and available for Canadian media interviews.
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Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
Press Secretary
C: 613.240.8921
media@greenparty.ca
www.greenparty.ca
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