Press Releases

At the opening of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development the United States of America was awarded the inaugural Rio Fossil of the Day. The Rio Fossil Awards will be presented daily throughout the negotiations highlighting the country or countries who do the least to support progress (or the most to block it) on issues relevant to climate change, such as energy, forests, and the green economy.

Today’s award was given to the United States for the overall strength of their commitment...to not having any real commitments. This fossil recognizes the United States' (once the considered the only remaining superpower) efforts to delete meaningful commitments from various parts of the negotiation text all through the day yesterday.

The Rio Fossil as presented read:

"This first recipient of the Rio Fossil has consistently refused to commit new funding to sustainable development initiatives in the Rio+20 process, despite handing out upwards of $521 billion to big polluters - more than enough to invest in a just and sustainable future at home and abroad.

The US has actually been deleting meaningful action across the board, such as disregarding the Rio Principle on Equity (Principle 3) - asking for its deletion from the entire text to be replaced by the term ‘inclusiveness’, rejecting the urgent need to work towards advancing sustainable consumption and production patterns , and blocking the launch of a High Seas Biodiversity Agreement to protect marine life in the high seas, which cover 64% of our oceans.

The first Rio Fossil goes to the United States of America!

The United States may have taken the first Fossil, but the field of candidates is opening up, and there are plenty of chances to get on, and off the Fossil podium. The U.S. has a real shot at not being a Fossil if they can become a champion on strengthening commitments and setting an ambitious timeline on ending fossil fuel subsidies in Rio.”

The presentation of the award took place at the RioCentro conference center at the Rio Fossil award ceremony. Organized by youth and NGO’s from across the globe the award was presented in a mock ceremony and accepted on the United States' behalf by Brendan Schoenman from the United States.

“As a young person representing the United States I regret-fully accept this award on behalf of my government" said Brendan. "Although I hope that I never have to stand up and accept this award again and that US steps up to be a champion here in Rio."

NGO BRIEFING ON THE NEGOTIATIONS

[Bonn, Germany] Civil society groups attending UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany, will host a media briefing, webcast live, on the last day of the negotiations to assess the Bonn outcome.

International experts from NGOs organized in the Climate Action Network (CAN) will discuss the role of different countries in the talks, and the outlook for COP18 in Doha at the end of the year.

The briefing takes place at Room Hayden the UNFCCC conference venue Hotel Maritim in Bonn, on Friday, 25 May, at 12:30 local time (03:30 San Francisco, 06:30 Washington DC, 11:30 London, 13:30 Nairobi, 14:30 Moscow, 16:00 Delhi, 18:30 Beijing, 19:30 Tokyo, 20:30 Sydney)

It will be webcast live at: http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/sb36/templ/ovw_live.php?id_kongressmain=217

NGO experts on the panel will include Tasneem Essop (WWF), Celine Charveriat (Oxfam), and Wael Hmaidan (CAN).

-       What: Briefing on the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Durban

-       Where: Room Hayden, Hotel Maritim, in Bonn, Germany

-       Webcast Live via www.unfccc.int, or at: http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/sb36/templ/ovw_live.php?id_kongressmain=217

-       When: 12:30 local Bonn time, Friday, 25 May 2012

-       Who: NGO experts on UNFCCC negotiations

About & Contacts:

Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 600 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.  For more information, please go to www.climatenetwork.org and contact CAN International Director Wael Hmaidan, email: whmaidan@climatenetwork.org, local mobile: +49-(0)1603195597

TckTckTck is the public campaign of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA), and CAN partners. Our shared mission is to mobilize civil society and galvanize public support to ensure a safe climate future for people and nature, to promote the low-carbon transition of our economies, and to accelerate the adaptation efforts in communities already affected by climate change. For more information, please go to www.tcktcktck.org and contact Communications Director Christian Teriete, email: christian.teriete@tcktcktck.org, local mobile: +49-(0)15778566968

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   

Bonn, Germany

Contact:

Wael Hmaidan

whmaidan@climatenetwork.org

Local mobile: +49 (0)1603195597

First Place Fossils go to the USA, Canada and China.

The first 1^st place Fossil goes to the USA, for its continuing attempts to block negotiations on sources of financing, and refusing to discuss how it will continue to scale up financing in 2013 and onwards, towards the agreed goal of $100b by 2020. We know that the USA faces some deep denial issues internally, as well as avoidance issues in the negotiations around issues like equity, capacity building and an international mechanism on loss and damage. Until the US is willing to have a frank and honest discussion leading to substantive decisions, it will be an impediment to this process.

An additional 1^st place Fossil goes to Canada for – can you guess???? – reneging on their commitments to fight climate change by withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol.  While many of you enjoyed your first full night of sleep after Durban overtime, the Canadians had no such luck. Barely off the plane, Canada’s Environment Minister wasted no time in confirming the COP’s worst kept secret that Canada was officially pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol. Many delegates probably had already given up on Canada at that point, but those of us that live within that vast, beautiful, hockey-loving country have had to continue to bear witness to what can only be called the government of polluters’ puppets. While Canada’s actions are clearly in a world of its own when it comes to bad behavior in the Kyoto Protocol, there are others that are behaving in fossil worthy manner. Here, we’re looking at Japan and Russia for refusing to participate in the second commitment period and Australia and New Zealand for missing the critical May 1 deadline to submit their QELROS. Australia and New Zealand are on notice that we expect these submissions by the end of Bonn – though the sooner the better as it is causing trouble in the KP.

And the final 1^st place Fossil goes to China for holding in abeyance the work programme on scaling-up pre-2020 ambition under the ADP. We agree with China that the ADP must not allow developed countries to jump ship from the KP and LCA to a weaker regime, but Parties can't hold critical parts of the Durban package in abeyance, which amounts to punting them to the other side of the moon. We can't hold the fight against climate change in abeyance!

About CAN:The Climate Action Network (CAN)is a worldwide network of roughly 700 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and individual action to limit human induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org

About the fossils:The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999,in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.

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^{Photo Credit: Leila Mead/IISD}

[Bonn – Germany] International experts from NGOs organized in the Climate Action Network (CAN) and the global TckTckTck campaign today called on negotiators gathered in Bonn for another round of UN climate talks to build on agreements made at COP17 in Durban last year rather than re-opening them.

An archived video from today’s NGO press conference will be published at: http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/sb36/templ/ovw_onDemand.php?id_kongressmain=217

Wael Hmaidan, Director at CAN International, said:

“The Durban outcome came as a positive surprise. It is not perfect, but provided us with the last opportunity to reach a meaningful global agreement to avoid catastrophic climate change impacts that threaten our survival. 2012 will be a transitional year, in which we will close the old process and start a new one. For the first time, governments are ready to tackle the difficult issues that they have tried to avoid in the past. Key challenges for countries this year include raising ambition to close the gap between pledged emission targets and what’s really needed, and addressing how to share the necessary effort in an equitable manner. 2012 is also witnessing an Arab spring in the climate negotiations. Qatar will be hosting COP18, Saudi Arabia is chairing one of the negotiation tracks, and Algeria is the new Chair of G77. This provides a unique opportunity for the Arab region to become more progressive, and to put a well ‘oiled’ process in place for a successful COP in Doha.”

Liz Gallagher, Senior Policy Advisor at E3G, said:

“Negotiators can no longer lick old wounds and go over old ground, their political masters are watching. With Durban marking the beginning of the process to deliver a global climate treaty by 2015, they have to use Bonn to deliver a work-plan that gets us there. Copenhagen was too political for the technocrats and too technical for politicians – and thus ended in disaster. Learning the lessons and laying the groundwork for success in 2015, Bonn must set out a clear process to unravel the ‘all or nothing’ approach these negotiations usually suffer from.”

Tove Ryding, Climate Policy Coordinator at Greenpeace International, said:

“A very crucial outcome of Durban was developing countries acknowledging that all countries, including developing countries, must work together to strengthen global action on climate change. However, it was absurd to see several developed countries respond to this positive move by developing countries by backtracking on their own commitments. Canada won the title as climate hypocrite of the year when they slammed the door on Kyoto strait after Durban. Absurdly enough, there is a risk that Australia and New Zealand might take inspiration from this bad example since they are so far failing to commit to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The EU have stepped up and shown will to do this. If Europe stick with their 20% target and insist on an 8 year Kyoto commitment period, however, they will be sticking their heads in the sand instead of opening the global discussion about the need for urgent and stronger action on climate change.”

Contacts

Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 600 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. For more information, please go to www.climatenetwork.org and contact CAN International Director Wael Hmaidan, email: whmaidan@climatenetwork.org, local mobile: +49-(0)1603195597

TckTckTck is the public campaign of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA). Our shared mission is to mobilize civil society and galvanize public support to ensure a safe climate future for people and nature, to promote the low-carbon transition of our economies, and to accelerate the adaptation efforts in communities already affected by climate change. For more information, please go to www.tcktcktck.org and contact Communications Director Christian Teriete, email: christian.teriete@tcktcktck.org, local mobile: +49-(0)15778566968

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