<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Olivia Burlingame Goumbri</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ogoumbri@venezuela-us.org">ogoumbri@venezuela-us.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 9:42 AM<br>Subject: Claudia Salerno op-ed "We Must Stop Climate Change and We Can Do It In Cancun"<br>To: <a href="mailto:ogoumbri@venezuela-us.org">ogoumbri@venezuela-us.org</a><br><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Dear friends and colleagues,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/148733/we_must_stop_climate_change_and_we_can_do_it_in_cancun" target="_blank">http://www.alternet.org/environment/148733/we_must_stop_climate_change_and_we_can_do_it_in_cancun</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Best, Olivia</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(1, 114, 189);"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; color: rgb(1, 114, 189);">Claudia Salerno, Venezuela's Presidential Envoy for Climate
Change</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 20pt;">We Must Stop Climate
Change and We Can Do it in Cancun</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 20pt; color: rgb(1, 114, 189);"></span></b></p>
<p><b>Published:</b> 11/03/2010<br>
<br>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/salerno-claudia-gr.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;"><img src="cid:image002.jpg@01CB7C04.151C9820" alt="Claudia Salerno" border="0" height="249" width="373"></span></a>By
Claudia Salerno</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Article published by AlterNet on November 3,
2010. If anyone wants to reprint it, please visit original <b><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/148733/we_must_stop_climate_change_and_we_can_do_it_in_cancun" target="_blank">Web
site</a></b>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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).</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Claudia Salerno is Venezuela’s Presidential Envoy
for Climate Change.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Cambria","serif";" lang="EN-US">Olivia
Burlingame Goumbri</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Cambria","serif";" lang="EN-US">Social
Outreach Adviser</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Cambria","serif";" lang="EN-US">Embassy
of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela</span></p>
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D.C. 20007</span></p>
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202-342-6854</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue;" lang="EN-US">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.</span></p>
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