MEP 'Disappointed' At The Outcome Of The UN Climate Change Summit

Sinn Féin MEP, Martina Anderson has said it was a "disappointing" outcome of the UN climate change summit in Doha.

She said: "The EU was quite blatant in its efforts to limit European industry climate protection targets. Despite the urgency, the EU did not raise its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to 30% or 40% by 2020. The current goal of 20% by 2020 has almost been already achieved.

"The message Doha sends out to the world is: continue with business as usual! The extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the minimum goal for Doha, doesn’t change anything. The Kyoto Protocol addresses only 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is riddled with loopholes.

"The EU more or less ignored the demands from developing countries to push for a detailed roadmap for a much-needed global climate treaty by 2015 and for the middle and long-term financing for mitigation and adaptation. Instead, some countries pledged to provide about € 7 billion over the next two years. Given the pace of ice cap melting, this is just a drop in the ocean. Millions of people are threatened by the loss of drinking water, flooding, or even erosion of their coastlines.


"We know that Europe will not escape the impact of climate change. Now is the time to step up our global campaign for governments to show leadership by setting science-based targets to decarbonise our economies.

"Climate change if left unchecked will cause economic as well as environmental catastrophe. What was obvious in the run-up to the climate summit in Doha is now official: global warming will certainly exceed 2°C, most likely rising to 4°C or more.

"With the recent UN COP 18 Climate Talks failing to sanction more ambitious climate action, the wider global community is now tasked with trying to salvage some faith in the possibility of a safer and more equitable world.

"The inextricable link between climate change and food security seen from a human rights perspective marks one opportunity to address this gap, serving as a wake-up call to policy makers about the effects of the numerous and inter-twined systematic failures which are impacting on both climate change and food production at an ever-increasing and alarming rate.

"Climate change-induced droughts, floods and other extreme weather events are severely impacting on agricultural production, thus hiking up food prices."

(CD/GK)