US criticised on 2C climate 'flexibility' call

The EU and small island states have criticised the US for saying the target of keeping global warming below 2C should be removed from climate talks.

Todd Stern Special Envoy for Climate Change

At the 2010 UN climate convention meeting, governments agreed to take “urgent action” to meet the target.

But last week the chief US climate negotiator Todd Stern said insisting on the target would lead to “deadlock”.

Spokesmen for the EU and the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) said the US should stick to promises made.

“Suddenly abandoning our agreement to keep global warming below 2C is to give up the fight against climate change before it even begins,” said Tony de Brum, Minister in Assistance for the Marshall Islands.

“‘Flexibility’ on our 2C limit would set the world on a path to irreversible, runaway climate change.

“For many low-lying island states, including my own, that is not a solution - it is a death sentence,” he told BBC News.

Isaac Valero-Ladron, the EU’s climate spokesman, said governments including the US had to live up to prior promises.

“Also, consolidated science continues to remind us of the dire consequences of going beyond such a temperature increase,” he said.

The core objective of the UN climate convention (UNFCCC), agreed in 1992, is to prevent “dangerous” climate change.

Scores of governments believe that 2C is a realistic indication of where “dangerous” climate change begins, although a greater number - principally those highly vulnerable to impacts such as sea level rise - say even 2C is too high. More

 

IOC Assesses Climate Vulnerability of South-West Indian Ocean Islands

13 April 2012: The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) project on climate change adaptation, titled "Acclimate," has released five assessments of climate change vulnerability in the South-West Indian Ocean islands of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion (France) and the Seychelles.

For each case, the reports provide qualitative assessments of climate vulnerability across various sectors including: integrated water management; fisheries; risk and disaster management; energy; food security; and security and sovereignty.

According to the assessment reports, these countries face shared challenges due to climate change, such as water scarcity, extreme weather events, sea level rise and coastal erosion, and coral bleaching. The common methodological framework across all five assessments has allowed production of a regional strategy for climate change adaptation, which will be submitted for political acceptance by the concerned countries at the end of 2012.

Acclimate, which started in 2008, was commenced to strengthen the capacity of South-West Indian Ocean island States to adapt to climate change. The assessments aim to share knowledge and contribute to mainstreaming climate issues into national and regional policy processes. [Acclimate Website (in French)] [Comoros Assessment Report] [Madagascar Assessment Report] [Mauritius Assessment Report] [La Réunion (France) Assessment Report] [Seychelles Assessment Report] [Synthesis and Roadmap to a Regional Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation] [Indian Ocean Commission Website] More