What Friends of the Earth thinks1 July 2001
Climate change will hit the poorest nations - who pollute the least - hardest. No one has the right to pollute more than any other.
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The rest of the world will pay the price for the United States' selfish actions. And the millions of people around the globe who will suffer the consequences of an increasingly unstable climate will have good cause to curse the President. |
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Kate Hampton, Friends of the Earth International's
climate co-ordinator
Rich countries must accept that they have an ecological debt to pay to developing countries that suffer from the effects of climate change.
Business as usual is not acceptable
Rich countries must act first and make the deepest cuts in emissions. The Kyoto targets are only the first steps in a process to halt climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol must come into force by September 2002
Friends of the Earth believes:
- Rules to implement the Kyoto Protocol must establish an effective international climate regime that is based on binding, verifiable and enforceable emissions limits.
- To prevent the Kyoto targets from being weakened, strict limits must be imposed on countries' use of sinks and flexibility mechanisms.
- Measures taken to cut emissions must not lead to other environmental and social ills - such as the displacement of indigenous people and local communities, loss of biodiversity or an increase in nuclear waste.
- COP6 and the instruments it establishes must deliver an immediate acceleration in the transfer and deployment of clean technologies and know-how.
- The protocol rules must support the highest standards of public participation and transparency.
- Industrialised countries must agree to pay compensation to developing countries for climate change, through much increased adaptation funds and additional aid for climate-related emergencies.
- In a framework of national emissions limits, every country has a duty to ensure its emissions do not exceed its global per capita share. This should be the principle used to allocate emissions limits after the first commitment period.
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