EDF Welcomes New Global Climate Leaders as Poznan Talks End

 

Contact:

Andrea Welsh, 202-572-3232 or 202-297-7723 (cell), awelsh@edf.org

 

(Poznan, Poland, Dec. 12, 2008)—Environmental Defense Fund praised developing nations for building momentum to stop global warming at the U.N. climate talks that headed for a conclusion here today, calling some emerging economies “new global leaders on climate change.”

 

“Developing nations have just raised the bar for action,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF’s director for international climate policy. “They’re fed up with the waiting game; Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Peru, to name some, have stepped up to the plate with proposals to lower their national emissions.”

 

EDF also applauded President-elect Barack Obama who, just days before negotiations started, pledged to lead the United States to engage in global climate talks and to move toward capping its own greenhouse gas emissions.

 

“We leave here with real momentum after that one-two punch, first the signal from Obama and then these developing country proposals,” said Annie Petsonk, EDF international counsel. “Obama asked for reports from Poznan, and we had more than 40 congressional staff here. That’s exactly the kind of engagement we need from the U.S. Congress.”

 

Steve Schwartzman, EDF’s director for tropical forest policy, added: “The deforestation issue is where developing and developed countries are coming together, even though negotiators barely managed to break the stalemate on technical details. We got a strong joint statement from 20 tropical and developed country ministers calling for early action to stop forest clearing, and Brazil committed to reduce its deforestation 70% in ten years.”

 

However, EDF said the overall results of the Poznan talks were “merely adequate” and called on world leaders to work harder to reach a shared agreement to stop global warming before temperatures rise 2ºC.

 

“We got the bare minimum of what we needed from the talks,” said Haverkamp. “We got a clear mandate and a timetable to move forward, but there’s a lot to do and less than a year to do it. The wait-and-see game must end.”

 

Petsonk added: “It’s time for the White House and Congress to take swift action on national legislation to cap U.S. emissions. The world is watching.”

 

At the global level, EDF called on world leaders to push hard to reach agreement at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009.

 

“We’ve got momentum, we’ve got concrete proposals, and we’ve got new leadership in Washington. There’s a mountain of work between now and next December but it is eminently doable,” Haverkamp said.