Friends of the Earth: more money needs to be put on the table

Commenting on the EU announcing a climate finance package, Friends of the
Earth’s (FOE) Senior International Climate Campaigner Asad Rehman said:
“Gordon Brown claims the EU is a world leader on climate change – yet the
money on the table is nowhere near enough ensure developing countries can
grow cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change already causing
suffering for millions of the world’s poorest people.
“Most of this cash would come from a global carbon market rather than from
European governments themselves – yet rich countries, including the UK, are
some of the chief culprits for causing climate change and have a
responsibility to provide this money from the public purse.
“Relying on a dodgy market system like carbon trading to reduce emissions is
irresponsible and dangerous – the EU must commit to cutting its emissions by
at least 40 per cent by 2020 at home by investing in renewable energy
generation and slashing energy waste.”

FOE is demanding that the Government changes its approach
to climate change with its Demand Climate Change campaign. The green
campaign group is asking everyone to sign its international petition to
world leaders for a strong and fair climate deal at demand climate change

FOE is calling for the Government to abandon its promotion of carbon offsetting –
which means avoiding real action at home through dodgy accounting – and pledge to cut emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020 at home.
It is also asking rich countries to acknowledge their legal and moral responsibility to provide new money for developing countries, distributed through the UN, so
that they can grow cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change which
are already putting millions of lives at risk. FOE also has proposals to be scrapped which would allow rich countries to buy chunks of forest whilst continuing to pump out emissions: an approach which won’t
solve climate change or halt deforestation.

Links
Friends of the Earth

Thanks to FOE - 30/10/09