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Lauryn Drainie - My Blog
Lauryn Drainie - My Blog


350 or Bust
About this event: The UN Climate Change Conference - Poznan, Dec 08
Related to country: Poland

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Since the release of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, the 2°C target to prevent dangerous climate change has become largely accepted among major actors in the environmental movement. I know that personally, whenever I explain the importance of fighting climate change I have always cited this fact.

It is only in the last few days that I’ve realized that the two degree target is appallingly inadequate from an ethical standpoint.

A temperature rise of 2°C over pre-industrial levels indicates CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere of approx. 450 ppm - a level that effectively condemns small island developing states to extinction. Island nations are begging for urgent action. During last week’s negotiations, AOSIS and the LDCs called for stabilization levels of under 350 ppm of atmospheric carbon which would indicate a probable global temperature rise of no more than 1.5°C – numbers established by NASA’s previously suppressed Jim Hansen.

It is not that negotiators outright deny AOSIS’s predicament, they just steer the conversation elsewhere in a gross display of willful ignorance. The international climate agreement we are working towards will be neither equitable nor ethical if we assume the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable. As youth, our strength lies in our moral sway, and in the fact that we do not have to make ideological or moral compromises. We should be demanding no less than an agreement that ensures the survival of all states.

Exclusion within the Secretariat:
From my vague understanding, the UN Secretariat books the hotels for the official negotiating parties. During an informal discussion yesterday with an official delegate from a small island state, I learned that his delegation was assigned to a residence that has neither phone nor internet access – talk about disenfranchisement. While other official delegations are setting up impromptu meetings and making snap decisions, delegations representing some small island developing states are left in the dark, unable to effectively do what I see as the most important work at the conference – demanding targets that safeguard the world’s most vulnerable.

December 8, 2008 | 7:14 PM Comments  0 comments





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