Greenpeace today welcomed the long awaited decision by the Russian Parliament, the Duma, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Russian ratification brings the number of countries who have ratified to the level required to bring the global agreement to protect the climate into law. However Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale warned that much work remains to be done. He said: "While the Kyoto Protocol coming into force is a welcome move, Kyoto by itself is not enough to protect people and the wider environment from the impact of a century of pumping the atmosphere full of polluting greenhouse gases."
He added, "We now need to roll up our sleeves and work to build on the Kyoto Protocol to ensure that the industrial revolution of the 20th century will be followed by a clean energy revolution of equal magnitude for the 21st century."
Now that Kyoto has been ratified, Greenpeace is urging governments to take the following key next steps:
- The United States - the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases - must stop denying global warming and act to drastically cut its emissions. Greenpeace is urging Tony Blair to utilise his forthcoming Presidency of the G8 and EU to exert pressure on the US to ratify Kyoto and take additional domestic measures to cut carbon emissions.
- The carbon reduction targets agreed at Kyoto, while welcome, are simply not enough to avert dangerous climate change. Governments must now make available resources to go beyond Kyoto targets and deliver the larger scale CO2 reductions necessary to try and ensure that global warming does not raise temperatures by more than 2°C.(1)
- Governments must make resources available to communities in countries who are already being affected by the impacts of climate change, such as increased flooding, hurricanes and droughts. Research indicates that these impacts will particularly affect people in developing countries.(2)
For more information contact Greenpeace UK press office on 020 7865 8255.
Greenpeace are calling for cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialised countries in the order of 60-80 per cent (relative to 1990 levels) by the middle of this century, far beyond the targets of the Kyoto Protocol. This is vital to stop climate change running out of control - for example by global average temperatures rising beyond 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
A report by the Climate Change and Development group details in full what action environment and developments groups believe needs to be taken to avert a global warming induced crisis in developing countries. The group consists of: ActionAid International, Christian Aid, Columban Faith and Justice, IDS (Institute of Development Studies), ITDG (Intermediate Technology Development Group),IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development), Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, nef (new economics foundation), Operation Noah, Oxfam, People & Planet, RSPB, teri Europe, WWF, WaterAid, World Vision. For the full report visit: http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/news_upinsmoke.aspx
