Calls for a willingness to climate solutions

The world needs an ambitious climate agreement  for us to avoid further serious climate change. Such an agreement must be based on what science tells us that is necessary to stabilize the global climate, not just what we think is politically possible.

This is the message in a statement to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen later this year from Norwegian and international researchers, politicians and business leaders. This week they have been participants in the Ny-Ålesund Symposium in Ny-Ålesund to discuss climate change and climate policy.

Link to the website for Ny-Ålesund Symposium: http://www.ny-aalesundsymposium.no/

Ny-Ålesund statement  

To the Norwegian Cabinet, as party to the upcoming COP 15 negotiations, from participants in the Ny-Ålesund Symposium , Kings Bay  79° North, June 8-10, 2009. Among the participants were leading representatives from business, science, politics and civil society. The Symposium was organised to discuss the need to combine carbon pricing, regulation and publicly financed R&D for an effective climate agreement in Copenhagen:

”During the climate symposium in Ny-Ålesund we have learned firsthand a lot about the adverse effects of climate change. There is already a visible pattern of serious impacts, in particular in the Arctic, in high altitudes, in drylands and on Small Island States. We are alarmed by some of the consequences and call for ambitious measures to reduce emissions now.

The non-linear character of the climate system entails particular risks. We do not know precisely where the tipping points are, but we know that the likely consequences may be catastrophic. Now is time for action.

The world needs an ambitious climate agreement to be able to avoid further ”dangerous climate change”. Such an agreement has to be based on what science, included social science, tells us is required to stabilise the climate system, not simply on what is politically feasible.

During the symposium it was clearly demonstrated - through the studies of IPCC, Climate Works and other institutions - that the cost of action is small compared to the cost of inaction.

• We call upon governments to carefully digest the science behind climate change and its implications, both the 4th Assessment Report of IPCC and more recent reports, and to base decisions in Copenhagen on this information.
• We are particularly concerned by the building risks of exceeding a 2° degrees increase in the average temperature. All efforts must be made to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration below 450 ppm CO2e, not least to avoid the positive feedback mechanisms – like methane release from the tundra or greatly reduced albedo from snow and ice - to take control. A precondition for that to happen is that global GHG emissions peak no later than 2020.
• We call upon industrialised countries to live up to their historic responsibility and provide leadership through ambitious emissions reductions and generous support for adaptation and low-carbon investments in developing countries.
• We call upon developing countries to develop emission path ways that are significantly lower than business as usual.
• We recognise the important role of business in developing solutions and the need for public/private partnerships to this end.
• We see the financial crisis as an opportunity to invest in efficiency and low-carbon technology. We urge governments to use at least 1/3 of their stimulus packages in support of green technology deployment and green jobs.
• We urge governments all over the world to multiply funding for energy research to help develop alternatives to fossil fuels and reducing the emissions from the use of hydrocarbons and help prepare for the the adverse effects of ”peak oil”.

We are deeply concerned by the slow pace of progress in the UNFCC negotiations. We therefore call upon the leaders of the major emitting countries to come together shortly to give clear direction for the Copenhagen agreement.”