At the end of a three-day business climate summit, business leaders from around the world announced a new plan, the "Copenhagen Call," in support of adopting a new UN climate treaty in Copenhagen in December. To read the text of the plan, click here.According to The Copenhagen Post, the "Copenhagen Call" will be presented to policy makers and world leaders attending December’s COP15 conference, and outlines the business community’s commitment to meeting ambitious climate targets and securing a stable carbon market to further encourage emissions reductions. The 700 executives attending the summit agreed with the scientific climate change report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that calls for limiting the average temperature increase compared with pre-industrial levels to 2 degrees Celsius by 2020. To read more, click here.
Prince Charles also spoke out yesterday from St. James' Palace in London, urging action on climate change, saying to a group of scientists:
It seems to me that in many ways we already have some of the answers to hand. We know about energy efficiency, renewable energy, and how to reduce deforestation... but we seem strangely reluctant to apply them.According to the BBC, the scientists are expected to sign an agreed memorandum of their findings on climate change. The Prince hopes the scientists can influence the conference in Copenhagen in December. To read more from the BBC, click here.
I don't know about your own experience, but it seems to me that whilst there is now only a mercifully small, if vociferous, number of people who do not accept the science of climate change and who should know better, there are still a great many who fail to recognized the real urgency of the situation. In so many ways we already are in the last chance saloon. So, somehow, global decision makers have to be persuaded that strong, committed and co-ordinated action is needed now, not in 10 years' time, or even in five, but now.
Posted: 05/27/09
