[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE: US & world Greens urge leaders at Cancun meeting on global warming to 'reverse the failure of Copenhagen'

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Monday, December 6, 2010



Green Party leaders from the US and around the world attend COP16 global
warming meeting in Cancun, urge world leaders to "reverse the failure of
Copenhagen"

• Global Greens Statement for COP16: "Climate change -- time for transformation"

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on global warming
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-ecological.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders from the US have joined Green elected
officials and leaders from countries throughout Latin America and Europe in
Cancun, Mexico, to participate in the 16th session of the Conference of the
Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) (http://www.cc2010.mx/en/index.php).

Greens are calling on the world's leaders attending COP16 to "to reverse the
failure of Copenhagen and create the conditions for a strong legally binding
global climate agreement" on steps to avert catastrophic climate change in the
next century, according to a statement issued by the Global Greens
Coordination.  The statement is appended below.

The Global Greens Coordination (http://www.globalgreens.org/ggc/ggc_homepage)
is a committee established to oversee Global Greens affairs, including issuing
Global Greens statements and organizing Global Greens congresses.

"In the US, Greens are challenging the White House, Congress, and state and
municipal governments to take action, by conversion to safe and clean energy,
drastic reduction of fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, more public
transportation and less car traffic, carbon taxes, creation of millions of
living-wage green jobs in conservation and retrofitting of homes and
buildings, protection for publicly-owned fresh water resources, and by leading
the world in forums like COP16 in calling for expansion of the Kyoto
Protocols," said Sanda Everette, former co-chair of the Green Party of the
United States, who is attending COP16.

"Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has caved in to the demands of
polluting industries, with the President's authorization of offshore drilling
in US coastal waters even after the BP disaster, endorsement of the 'clean
coal' myth, refusal to act against mountaintop removal mining, approval for
new taxpayer-funded nuclear plants, promotion of emissions trading schemes,
which give polluters a license to continue polluting, and other retreats.  In
this century of global warming, the Green Party has become an imperative in
the US and abroad," Ms. Everette added.

Along with Ms. Everette, other US Greens in Cancun for COP16 are current Green
Party co-chair Mike Feinstein and Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party member
Maggie Zhou.  Green Party members are present as delegates from NGOs or have
press credentials, since conference rules bar political parties from any
official status.

See also:

• Link for recorded webcasts: http://webcast.cc2010.mx/grid_en.html
• "Virtual Participation" in COP16:
http://unfccc.int/virtual_participation/items/5780.php

• World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth:
http://pwccc.wordpress.com
• People’s Agreement of Cochabamba, April 22, 2010:
http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/peoples-agreement


Climate change -- time for transformation
Global Greens Statement for COP16 in Cancun, December 2010
http://www.globalgreens.org/statements/cancun_cop16_time_for_transformation

1 December 2010

The Global Greens call on the leaders of the world’s industrialised countries
at Cancun to reverse the failure of Copenhagen and create the conditions for a
strong legally binding global climate agreement to avoid dangerous climate
change and facilitate adaptation.

COP 16 at Cancun Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December, is the sixteenth
meeting of parties to the UN Framework on Climate Convention since it was
negotiated at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Green parties from around a dozen
countries will be represented.

The Global Greens, representing many millions of the Earth’s citizens,
recognise that humanity cannot continue to live beyond the Earth’s ecological
limits. Cancun is an opportunity to begin the transformation to
sustainability, including through --

1. Political will and practical mechanisms to constrain global warming to no
more than +2°C above pre-industrial levels, especially by moving rapidly
beyond coal and other fossil fuels through investment in energy-saving,
resource-efficiency, and renewable energy.

2. Rules for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
including safeguards that ensure claimed emission reductions represent genuine
abatement, that benefit and protect Indigenous peoples’ rights, and that
protect and restore biodiversity, water and nature.

3. Commitment of substantial new funding by developed countries for emissions
mitigation and climate change adaptation by developing countries.

4. Greenhouse gas accounting rules that prevent perverse outcomes, such as
promoting biofuel plantations at the expense of biodiversity and critical food
production in developing countries and giving loopholes to developed countries
in the land use, land-use change and forestry sector.

5. Exclusion of carbon capture and storage from the Clean Development
Mechanism, and rejection of nuclear power altogether.

The COP16 should commit to finalizing a legally binding agreement no later
than 2011 covering these and other issues, building on the Kyoto Protocol.

More information: secretary at globalgreens.org


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

"Global warming will kill one million a year by 2030: Estimates at UN talks
say it will also cost $157 billion annually"
By Richard Ingham, Agence France-Presse, December 4, 2010
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Global+warming+will+kill+million+year+2030/3928270/story.html

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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