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Ian Pearson Sets Out Joint Approach for Tackling Climate Change
30th May 2006 (Source: DTI )
UK Climate Change Minister Ian Pearson has called on international legislators to keep up the pressure on governments to develop an international agreement to tackle climate change.
Addressing a meeting of Canadian and British MPs in Ottawa, Canada, Mr Pearson highlighted the role that legislators could play in the fight against climate change and in complementing the work of the Gleneagles Dialogue. The Gleneagles Dialogue was agreed during the UK G8 presidency last year and aims to create a space away from the formal UN negotiating process where countries can identify common ground and work together to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Legislators from the G8 and emerging economies will be working together to shadow the work of the Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, as part of a G8+5 legislators' dialogue on climate change.
Over the last 150 years, global temperatures remained broadly stable until the middle of the last century. Since then, they have been on a steady upward path. International attention is now focused on the speed of global warming and the likely impact of future increases in mean temperatures around the world. (Data from the Met Office)
Mr Pearson said:
"Legislators from all countries have a vital role to play in tackling climate change, helping to formulate domestic policies to combat climate change, raising awareness and encouraging debate in their constituencies as well as holding their governments to account.
"If we want a serious discussion about climate change we need to involve the major economies of the G8, including the US, as well as the emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
"The Gleneagles Dialogue is a vital forum in which these governments can float innovative ideas and identify opportunities for emissions reductions ahead of an agreement on an international future framework. Legislators from the G8 plus the five emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa will be shadowing this process."
Mr Pearson will also take the opportunity to meet Canada's new environment minister Rona Ambrose. He added:
"Agreement to begin UN negotiations on a future framework was achieved in Montreal, thanks to the excellent chairmanship of the Canadian government. The US, China, India as well as Canada all agreed to work together through the United Nations process to examine the way forward. This was an essential signal about our commitment to the continuation of the international carbon market and the Kyoto mechanisms.
"In the meantime, the Gleneagles Dialogue is the place where we can make real progress between now and 2008. The Dialogue should help to encourage more free thinking, where innovative ideas can be debated and tested."
As presidents of GLOBE (Global Legislators' Organisation for a Balanced Environment) International, GLOBE UK will organise the G8+5 legislators' dialogue on climate change which brings parliamentarians and business representatives together to discuss climate change. The next meeting of the G8+5 legislators' dialogue will take place in St Petersburg in July ahead of the G8 summit.
NOTES TO EDITORS
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One of the main climate change outcomes of Gleneagles last year was a commitment by the G8 to hold an ongoing Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development. This Dialogue has been designed to create a space away from the formal negotiating process at the UN to discuss new ideas, identify common ground and practical actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The first meeting of the Dialogue was held at Lancaster House, London last November, at which Mexico offered to host a second Ministerial meeting in the Autumn of 2006.
At the meeting the Dialogue Partners agreed to work together on:
- Deployment of clean technologies, such as renewable energy technology and carbon capture and storage, to put global emissions on a path to slow peak and decline;
- Incentives for large scale private sector investment in low carbon technologies, working with the World Bank;
- A new model for cooperation between developed and developing countries, as put forward by China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico at Gleneagles;
- Reinforcing action on adapting to the impacts of climate change.
- GLOBE UK (Global Legislators' Organisation for a Balanced Environment) has been operating in the UK since 1998, is an all-party Parliamentary group, and has 60 members from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The current focus of the group is on renewable energy, export credit agency reform, climate change and following up the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. There are sister GLOBE organisations in many other countries including the European Parliament, Russia, Japan, Germany and India.
- The G8 Legislators and Business Leaders Climate Change Forum has been designed to bring together international legislators from the G8, the "+5" (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa), international business leaders and key international organisations (such as the World Bank) to discuss a future framework to address climate change. The participants will include up to 6 legislators from each invited country plus the Heads of selected major multinational corporations.
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