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Who: More than 10,000 political leaders, journalists, non-governmental organizations and delegates
What: The United Nations’ Climate Change Conference
Where: Bali, Indonesia
When: December 3-14, 2007
Why: To tackle climate change and help us move to a cleaner, greener and more sustainable future
Background: In 1997, the nations of the world signed the Kyoto Protocol, which established a global framework for cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
The emission reduction targets in the first phase of the Protocol were to be met between 2008-2012. The reductions in this first period were relatively modest – only five per cent below 1990 levels for industrialized countries as a whole and six per cent for Canada.
Over the decade since 1997 there have been some setbacks and disappointments – most significantly U.S. President George Bush’s withdrawal from the Protocol in 2001. Still, almost all industrialized countries are on track to meet their commitments, which start next year. But even while redoubling efforts to meet their existing commitments, countries are looking ahead to the post-2012 period, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends. Many countries are looking to establish reduction targets beyond the first phase of Kyoto.
The negotiations for the second phase of Kyoto must be completed by 2009, in order to allow for ratification by all countries and entry into force well before 2012, when the first phase ends. But these complex and difficult negotiations cannot begin effectively without an agreement on an adequate framework and expected outcomes for the negotiations – and this is what the Bali meeting must produce.
If this does not happen, the world will be put on a path to dangerous and irreversible climate change, with the loss of many species and entire ecosystems, and the threat of catastrophic impacts. But if successful, we can ensure that global emissions peak and start to decline in the next decade, and continue sharply downward to levels that ensure that the impacts of climate change are limited and manageable, allowing humans and most ecosystems to adapt to them.
Join thousands of Canadians who support a new global agreement on climate change!
Links:
David Suzuki Foundation's 'Bali Blog'
Canada in Bali: A Backgrounder on the 2007 UN Climate Negotiations (PDF)
United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Bali
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)