All Hype and no Substance in Poznan

World Future Council: All Hype and no Substance in Poznan

WFC Chair Bianca Jagger calls for regular Heads-of-State Climate Crisis Meetings to ensure a sound Agreement in Copenhagen next Year

Poznan, December 12: “The Climate Conference in Poznan was all hype and no substance,” Bianca Jagger, Chair of the World Future Council, said today in Poznan, Poland. “The EU has dramatically weakened its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This conference could have made history, but instead ended up as a festival of ‘lip service’,” she added. The World Future Council calls upon the UN Climate Secretariat to set up a series of heads-of-state meetings in the run-up to Copenhagen to ensure that a ‘Kyoto Plus’ agreement will take adequate measures to deal with the climate crisis facing humanity.

EU leaders today agreed on significant concessions to polluting companies and countries, whilst claiming that their target of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020 would not be jeopardized. Especially the agreement on a future emission trading scheme represented a significant retreat from ambitious plans drawn up in January by the EU commission. Electricity companies, especially from Poland, will now get emission permits for free, which effectively knocks out any positive cost advantages for climate-friendly technologies. Germany had insisted on this concession, assuring that its own heavy industries sectors will also get free CO2 permits during the next few years.

“The weakening of the EU climate package has dealt a devastating blow to the Poznan negotiations. By making concessions to the coal industry, the EU is undermining its own – already rather weak – climate target of 20% C02 reductions by 2020, and will jeopardize its leading role at the Copenhagen negotiations,” Bianca Jagger added: “How will any country commit to further reductions if Europe’s promises turn out to be little more than hot air?”

In response to major new scientific concerns about the global climate situation, the WFC had called on politicians attending the UN climate conference to agree a ‘Poznan Action Plan,’ asking participating governments to introduce taxes on carbon emissions with a progressive annual increase. It also proposes incisive policy measures to speed up the deployment of renewable energy across the world as a replacement for fossil fuel technology.

ENDS

© Scoop Media