Fabius raps Kerry stand

‘Not binding’

VALLETTA, Nov 12, (AFP): French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed regret Thursday over reported remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry that the Paris climate summit will not deliver a binding treaty requiring countries to cut carbon emissions.

“I think that it’s a formulation which could have been more fortunate,” Fabius told journalists on the sidelines of the EU-Africa summit in Malta.

“I saw my friend Kerry yesterday. Things must be very clear,” Fabius said.

Kerry, interviewed by the Financial Times, said: “It’s definitively not going to be a treaty... They’re not going to be legally binding reduction targets like Kyoto or something.”

Kerry was referring to the 1997 Kyoto protocol committing states to limit emissions.

The UN Conference of Parties (COP21) meeting of some 100 heads of state and government, which opens in the French capital on November 30, aims to secure a deal to stave off catastrophic levels of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Fabius

Risk

The nations most at risk have appealed for a stricter goal than limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius — which the vulnerable nations say will still leave one billion people at risk of rising sea levels and other dire impacts.

A coalition of nations most at risk from climate change appealed Wednesday for a crucial UN summit to enshrine a much tougher target on global warming, warning that more than one billion lives were at stake.

Members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum also pledged to do more themselves to contain global warming, aiming to inspire and challenge powerful countries ahead of the Paris summit starting in less than three weeks.

Following a meeting in the Philippine capital of Manila, the group issued a declaration calling for a Paris accord to cement a target of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

The 195-nation UN climate group had previously adopted a goal of limiting global warming to 2 C, which scientists say is the threshold to avoid the most catastrophic consequences.

But that would still leave more than one billion people exposed to rising sea levels and other dire impacts of global warming, according to leaders of the Climate Vulnerable Forum.

“Our vulnerable nations are the ground zero in the global struggle against climate change,” Joyceline Goco, a co-chair of the forum from the Philippines, said after the theeday event.

“Meeting here in Manila we shine a light on the grave dangers we face but also our achievements in addressing climate change and the benefits this is bringing us.”

Emissions

Ahead of Paris, pledges by nations to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming would still see temperatures rise by about 3 C, according to a range of studies.

Many nations are reluctant to do more because of the short-term economic benefits of relying on fossil fuels for energy, cutting down rainforests or other actions that lead to greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are getting a lot of pushback on sticking to the 1.5 degrees from many countries who feel it is unfeasible,” Saleemul Huq, chair of the forum’s expert advisor’s group, told AFP on the sidelines of the Manila meeting.

“But we must stick to it because it is the moral thing to do. Adopting a two degree long-term goal would be to accept that we are not able to protect the poor people in the poor countries, and we are writing them off.”

Until this week the Climate Vulnerable Forum was a grouping of 20 nations, including the Philippines, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Kiribati, Maldives, Rwanda and Barbados.

The group announced on Wednesday it had 23 new members, from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Pacific, representing more than one billion people.