CLIMATE TREATY HANGS IN THE BALANCE AT NEGOTIATIONS IN BONN

BONN, 27 February 1997

Dangerous climatic changes caused by global warming will occur worldwide unless governments of major industrialised countries agree on legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse emissions, Greenpeace said today.

Climate Policy Director for Greenpeace International Bill Hare said he had grave concerns about the likely outcomes from climate negotiations which begin next week in Bonn, Germany.

"This meeting must reach agreement on the critical draft protocol text on greenhouse gas reduction if there is to be any chance of success," Hare said. Draft negotiating text is legally required to be submitted by June 1 so that a climate protocol can be adopted at the crucial climate convention meeting in December at Kyoto, Japan.

"Most of the proposals on the table, to date from the USA, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, open up loopholes or seem designed to block agreement and none have put forward an emission reduction target," Hare said. "We are looking for the European Union, at the Council meeting in Brussels on Monday, to send a strong signal to the Bonn negotiations. The EU must put forward a progressive target for greenhouse gas emission reductions, thus starting the inevitable phase-out of fossil fuels."

Hare said the recent Greenpeace expedition to Antarctica has shown the world what is at stake from global warming. "Collapsing ice-shelves, declining penguin colonies and other rapid changes in the Antarctic Peninsula show what is ahead for one of the world's last wilderness areas", said Hare.

Climate scientists have long predicted the polar regions will experience the fastest warming of any area in the world and be indicator regions of global climate change. Large temperature rises have been recorded in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

In the Arctic annual temperatures have increased by about 1.5 degrees - three times the global rate - over land masses in Canada's western Arctic, Alaska and eastern Siberia. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed by 2.5 degrees since 1947 according to British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists. BAS spokesperson Dr John King stated at the time: "The rise is the fastest we have on record ... people should be looking to the future for the consequences could be quite dire."

Particular responsibility for clear carbon dioxide reduction targets rests with the German government which is not only the host of the AGBM but has tried to carve out a profile for itself as one of the more progressive forces in the process. Both the self-imposed carbon dioxide reduction target of 25-30 per cent until the year 2005 and the strong rhetoric of chancellor Helmut Kohl at the Berlin climate summit underline a verbal commitment that has yet to be translated into action.

"As of now, any progress is more than counterbalanced by extreme carbon dioxide increases in an ever growing transport sector" said Wolfgang Lohbeck of Greenpeace Germany.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE POLICY DIRECTOR BILL HARE 00-31-6-534 33454
OR PRESS OFFICER HOLGER ROENITZ ON 31-6-534 17945
OR JON WALTER 31-20-523 6222