Insufficient progress in Durban will cost lives

Stewart Stevenson MSP met with SCIAF partners in Durban (Photo: SCIAF)

The collective failure of governments to agree sufficient action at the UN’s climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, threatens to increase the climate-related death toll in developing countries, SCIAF warned today.

Speaking from Durban SCIAF’s Campaigns Officer Lexi Barnett said:

“Insufficient progress at the UN’s climate change summit in Durban is likely to cost many lives in developing countries.

“While some positive progress has been made towards agreeing a global legal framework, the major industrialised countries have failed yet again to agree to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in line with what scientists believe is necessary to avoid dangerous climate change.

“This means we are still on course for global temperature rises of 3 to 4 degrees Celsius. Experts believe this will be catastrophic for much of the world’s population, especially in developing countries where the lives and livelihoods of many millions are at risk. With 300,000 climate related deaths every year already, mainly in developing countries, this lack of ambition is unacceptable.”

The UN climate talks in Durban drew to a disappointing close in the early hours of Sunday morning, 36 hours after their scheduled conclusion.

Legal systems to manage greenhouse gas emission cuts are essential if we are to avert runaway global warming. The minimum demand of an extension to the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol (KP) has been met, however, the US has never ratified the KP and it does not cover major developing economies such as China, India and Brazil. The need for a single global treaty to come into force in the future has therefore also been agreed at the negotiations.

However the terms of the pact have fallen well short of the ambition needed to hold dangerous climate change in check. Proposals to implement the global system by 2015 were blocked and delaying action until 2020 means vital years will be lost, during which the gap between commitments and what action is needed will only widen.

Agreement on the financial management of the Green Climate Fund was reached, however there was no clarity on where the money will come from to fund it.

Lexi Barnett continued:

“We have seen limited progress with finance to help developing countries cope with the climate challenges they face, but the pot remains empty.

“Climate change highlights a huge injustice in which the wealthy industrialised nations have created a global problem but poor developing nations are suffering the consequences. We have to keep pushing for action from our leaders.”

SCIAF

Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund

Insufficient progress in Durban will cost lives