[Nyclimatechange] Fwd: Claudia Salerno op-ed "We Must Stop Climate Change and We Can Do It In Cancun"

Thu Nov 4 18:27:19 UTC 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Olivia Burlingame Goumbri <ogoumbri at venezuela-us.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 9:42 AM
Subject: Claudia Salerno op-ed "We Must Stop Climate Change and We Can Do It
In Cancun"
To: ogoumbri at venezuela-us.org

 Dear friends and colleagues,

I thought you would be interested in a recent op-ed published yesterday by
AlterNet from Venezuela’s climate negotiator, Claudia Salerno. You can find
it at the following link as well as in text form below:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/148733/we_must_stop_climate_change_and_we_can_do_it_in_cancun

Best, Olivia

* *

Claudia Salerno, Venezuela's Presidential Envoy for Climate Change

*We Must Stop Climate Change and We Can Do it in Cancun***

*Published:* 11/03/2010

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[image: Claudia
Salerno]<http://venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/salerno-claudia-gr.jpg>By
Claudia Salerno

Article published by AlterNet on November 3, 2010. If anyone wants to
reprint it, please visit original *Web
site<http://www.alternet.org/environment/148733/we_must_stop_climate_change_and_we_can_do_it_in_cancun>
*.

*Venezuela’s lead negotiator on climate change writes that protecting the
earth’s climate is quite achievable if there is the political will to do so.
*

As Venezuela’s lead negotiator on climate change, I recently participated in
a preparatory round of negotiations in China leading up to the global summit
in December in Cancun, Mexico. This summit will take up where the 2009
Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change left off.

Much has been said in the media about the meeting, and one thing is
certainly true – there is plenty of frustration and uncertainty about the
possibility of achieving an agreement on climate change by year’s end. But
this does not mean it is impossible.

In fact, it is quite achievable if there is the political will to do so.
Developed countries need only to commit to fulfilling their existing first
period reduction obligations established by the Kyoto Protocol and pledge to
substantially reduce and reabsorb their domestic greenhouse gas emissions in
accordance to a second commitment period to be established in Cancun.

According to almost all scientific studies, we know that entire nation
states like Tuvalu are destined to literally sink into the sea as a result
of global warming. In South America, mountain tops where snow used to fall
and glaciers form have gone barren. Even U.S. governmental agencies report
that this past decade is the warmest one ever experienced by mankind.

We are approaching a critical time in human history, one where we can either
move forward to reverse the effects of climate change or continue down a
path that will soon become irreversible and destroy our planet. If global
warming increases by more than two degrees Celsius in coming years, as will
surely happen if no reasonable and fair agreement is reached quickly, there
is a 50 percent chance that the damage caused will be irreversible.

Unlike what many suggest, China is not the problem. China, along with India
and others, have made considerable commitments to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and are already working to realize them. Other developing
countries have done the same, although we only generate a virtual drop in
the bucket of global carbon emissions. The key player missing here is the
U.S.

I had the great opportunity this week to spend time with U.S.-based
environmentalists, climate experts and policy makers while speaking at the
Green Festival in Washington, D.C. and participating in a panel discussion
at Boston College. It seems clear to me that the American people do not want
a repeat of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, where a proposal made by a small
number of powerful countries would have allowed for a disastrous 3-4 degree
rise in temperature over the next 30 years. (Fortunately, Venezuela and some
other countries opposed this proposal).

The American people want progress and they want action – and they want it
this year. “How many climate catastrophes are acceptable before we act?” I
asked during my talk. One responded, “Hurricane Katrina was already too
much. We are still suffering from that.”

In the world of global negotiations, I can tell you, one more round of talks
without real commitments will also be one beyond what our planet can afford.
While it is absurd for us to believe that all the nations of the world will
agree on everything, we must act on what we already agreed on in 1992 at the
Framework Convention: developed countries’ greenhouse gas emissions must be
significantly reduced. As President Obama said last year in Copenhagen,
“It’s better for us to choose action over inaction.”

I truly hope the U.S. will act upon this sentiment in Cancun and join the
rest of the world in fully committing to aggressive action to stop climate
change. For the sake of humanity and our planet, nothing less will do.

*Claudia Salerno is Venezuela’s Presidential Envoy for Climate Change.*

Olivia Burlingame Goumbri

Social Outreach Adviser

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

1099 30th Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20007

Tel: 202-342-6854

www.venezuela-us.org

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This material is distributed by Olivia Goumbri, on behalf of the Embassy of
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.  Additional information is available
at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

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