The World Wide Fund for Nature is calling for governments to step forward and make significant progress in producing a new global climate agreement in 2015.
The organization pointed out that there are only a few days left for world leaders to produce a new global climate agreement in 2015, noting that governments should make every day count.
WWF’s urge for progress was made ahead of the United Nations climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, which will start on Monday.
“The Polish government has unfortunately shown us how not to handle these important negotiations by having embarrassingly low ambitions for this meeting and by trying to package their pro-coal stance as ‘clean coal’ – something that simply doesn’t exist,” said Tasneem Essop, WWF’s head of delegation for the upcoming climate talks in Warsaw.
“We are clear that we have little time left to act, and governments, including Poland, aren’t doing enough to address the problem. The world is alarmingly far from an emissions reductions pathway that would limit dangerous climate change,” she explained.
Ms. Essop also highlighted the fact that as of present, climate and energy policy is driven almost entirely by the vested interests of fossil fuel companies and not by what is good for the planet and humanity.
“We need to change this approach in Warsaw. We are calling on governments to make significant progress and agree to concentrate actions to bring down emissions before 2020. Scaling up investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency provides such an opportunity, especially since the technologies are becoming increasingly competitive and affordable,” she said.
WWF’s head of the Global Climate and Energy Initiative Samantha Smith cited the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, saying that climate change is still happening, and that the main source driving climate pollution is the burning of fossil fuels.
“We know that most of the pollution that causes climate change comes from burning fossil fuels. We must quit fossil fuels and have a just transition to clean renewable energy. It won’t happen fast enough without governments, who need to send clear policy signals to investors,” Ms. Smith said. – EcoSeed Staff