A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) official said Monday that he is looking for a mandate for global climate change negotiations at next month's U.N. conference in Bali, Indonesia.
"We do not need many achievements from Bali. We need one result: to start negotiations and to list the points which need to be negotiated in the next two years," Stephan Singer, head of European Climate Unit of the WWF European Policy Office, told Xinhua.
He said discussions at the Bali conference, including strengthened greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments from industrialized countries, more funding for developing countries, better access to clean technologies and reduced defrostation, willbe building blocks for a post-Kyoto world climate change regime.
"We need increased funding for allocation for developing countries; we need increased funding for technology development; we need to look at the CDM (clean development mechanism); we need to look into how to include reduced defrostation in developing countries; and of course we need to have convincing and strong messages from the rich countries to reduce their own emissions quite drastically," he said.
He stressed the need to bring the United States back to global climate change negotiations.
A signatory to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that stipulates emission reduction targets for industrialized countries, the United States, the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, has not ratified the treaty.
Singer sees hopes of the return of Washington as Bush steps down as president in January 2009. "Whoever becomes U.S. president, he/she can not exercise isolationism any more," he said.
Without Washington on board, bigger polluters in the developing world, such as China and India, are not morally bound to do more in climate change, said Singer.
"China is already working toward the common goal, understanding there are common but differentiated responsibilities. I want the same from the United States," said Singer.
He urged global efforts to fight climate change. "If we take climate change as a serious threat, everything must be mobilized for what we call the next industrial revolution."
Source:Xinhua
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