Leanne Jansen
“Shape up or ship out,” Greenpeace, the WWF and Oxfam warned the US yesterday.
As the second and concluding week of the 17th UN climate talks dawned, the three talked tough in pushing for greater ambition and concrete commitments inaddressing climate change.
“Move aside and let the rest of the world move forward if you cannot get with the programme,” Greenpeace International’s executive director, Kumi Naidoo, said.
“You have delayed the world far too long. Sadly, our message to US President Barack Obama right now is simply this: if you cannot get your team here on the ground to shift from the negative positions that they have been taking, then with great… discomfort we are saying to President Obama and the US delegation, ‘move aside’,” he said.
Naidoo said the situation in Durban necessitated that the spotlight be put on the US.
“We must remind ourselves that the world was held hostage to eight years of climate denialism by President George W Bush’s administration and we expected better from the administration of President Obama.”
Oxfam advocacy and campaigns director Celine Charveriat said the US should “stand aside” rather than “harm” the efforts of other countries.
She said the world was on the path to a 3° or 4° temperature increase, which would be “devastating” for poor countries, if the negotiations continued in the same vein.
WWF International director-general Jim Leape said the spate of climate-related disasters to rock the US in the past year should provide impetus for that country’s delegation to “step up” – and, if not, “we need them to get out of the way”.
Naidoo said the immediate concern was the second commitment period to the Kyoto protocol, and although it seemed likely that Durban would not become the protocol’s final resting place, it could end up in the intensive care unit.
He said the organisations wanted a second commitment period with “serious” legal obligations.
