Opening Fossil of the Day Award: New Zealand

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Opening Fossil of the Day Award
NEW ZEALAND!

Bonn, Germany 2009-08-10

CAN International (CAN-I) awarded its first Fossil of the Day award for the August intersessional to the following country judged best at blocking progress over the day of negotiations.

First Place: New Zealand, for announcing the adoption of a completely inadequate and highly conditional 2020 target range of 10% to 20% below 1990 levels at the Plenary session of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations today. This follows comments in the New Zealand Parliament where the Government criticised small Pacific Island States for advocating for the targets needed to ensure their survival.

"These kinds of low Annex 1 targets won't achieve the emission reductions needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change or even the 2 degree stabilisation goal that New Zealand has made a condition of its target. Poor people, already being hit hard by climate change, have once again been disappointed by another developed country taking a weak and self-interested approach,” said Sara Shaw, co-chair of CAN-I mitigation group.

“Will New Zealand name the countries it expects to do its share of the effort in its place?”

"New Zealand has no unconditional target which seems like a threat that New Zealand will walk away from efforts to tackle climate change if it doesn't get what it wants."

ENDS

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