The UK government today (31 March 2010) set out what must be done to build on the progress made at Copenhagen, with the launch of ‘Beyond Copenhagen: The UK Government’s International Climate Change Action Plan’ (1.4 MB PDF).
Approximately 140 stakeholders – from business, NGOs, media, youth and others – attended today's event in London.
President Jagdeo of Guyana also attended the launch, calling for renewed international action and commending the UK Government for its climate leadership, reflecting that ‘[the world] needed a developed country to re-mobilise action’.
The Beyond Copenhagen plan states that:
- The UK Government wants to build on the strengths of the Kyoto Protocol, and is open to extending that agreement as a way of getting the legal deal we need.
- The UK is in favour of strengthening the UN decision making process that was so frustrating at Copenhagen.
- The UK are pushing for the EU to increase its plans to cut emissions in line with comparable moves elsewhere, which is why we are supporting the European Commission’s work to identify the practical steps that would be required to implement a 30% target.
We spoke at the launch to people about their views on Beyond Copenhagen:
Joss Garman, Greenpeace, urged that 'rebuilding momentum' was vital in order to 'end the deadlock we saw in Copenhagen' on key issues such as climate finance. Real progress, for example, on the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Financing, would help.
Bob Ward, LSE discussed climate science, stressing that there is 'no equivocation' that 'greenhouse gases are mounting in the atmosphere, that we know from very basic physics that we expect the earth to warm from that.' He added: 'There are uncertainties. The uncertainties are mostly about how warm the earth will get, because we don’t know how much greenhouse gases we will pump into the atmosphere, and how much the earth will respond to that – the impact. But nobody is suggesting seriously that we’re not going to be seeing warming, or that we’re not going to see impacts.'
Eduardo Medina, Mexican Ambassador
Mexico is the host of COP16, the next major UNFCCC negotiations later this year. Mexican hosts and Ambassador Eduardo Medina descibed the road to COP16 as 'difficult but not impossible' and described that 'we nreally need to get countries throughout the world really aligning themselves to the objectives... so we are able to make a success of Cancun'.
The highly anticipated negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 concluded with the Copenhagen Accord, which was criticised, but which also represented considerable progress that cannot be underestimated. Prior to Copenhagen, the UK Government set out its negotiating position in the ‘The Road to Copenhagen’ document.