“Many issues that could have been resolved in Lima were pushed into this year’s negotiations instead. That business-as-usual approach now puts a heavy burden on negotiators,” said Samantha Smith, leader of W.W.F.’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative.
A “business unusual” approach is needed in the Geneva Talks to successfully deliver a new global climate deal, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
“Many issues that could have been resolved in Lima were pushed into this year’s negotiations instead. That business-as-usual approach now puts a heavy burden on negotiators,” said Samantha Smith, leader of W.W.F.’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative.
“They should draw on the momentum we saw before Lima, where people around the world mobilized for climate action and countries stepped forward with new climate commitments. That was business unusual, and that’s the same approach negotiators will need to agree on an ambitious, science-based climate deal,” Ms. Smith explained.
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According to the W.W.F. negotiators in Geneva must address three critical areas in order to keep global warming from reaching dangerous levels: a long-awaited global climate agreement with science and equity-based commitments that enters into force in 2020; urgent, collaborative national efforts to build up renewable energy and reduce climate pollution before 2020; and building trust between governments participating in the negotiating process.
The Geneva talks will be the first formal meetings since the conference in Lima, Peru, last year (see related story). The talks in Geneva are also the only scheduled negotiations before a May deadline that requires the draft text to be finalized for the last round of talks in Paris later this year.
W.W.F. reiterated that research gathered from across the globe proves that climate change is occurring, human activities are causing it and its devastating impacts are hitting ecosystems and affecting the lives and livelihoods of people around the world. – EcoSeed Staff
