A new campaign and website called New Earth Deal have been launched by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s environment committee, to push for a fair global climate change agreement at the coming UN conference in Copenhagen.
Former UK deputy prime minister John Prescott is backing the campaign, which calls for “social justice” in a climate change mitigation deal, which would aim to reduce CO2 emissions per head in developed countries, while allowing developing countries to grow in a sustainable manner, with emissions per head eventually equalising.
“Securing a deal at Copenhagen will be ten times more difficult than Kyoto. We believe that any deal negotiated must consider the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” Mr Prescott said.
“The climate change we’re experiencing across the world has been caused by the richer developed countries. They must now recognise the central principle that the polluter pays. But since climate change affects all nations whatever their size, wealth or population, a consensus is absolutely necessary for a binding and sustainable agreement.
“Failure is not an option at Copenhagen.”
Partner of the New Earth Deal campaign is environmental film Age of Stupid, clips of which feature on the campaign website, and will be used heavily in awareness campaigns. A screening of the film was shown in the House of Commons in June.
The website also features a film of five people representing the USA, Europe, China, India and Africa walking along a time line. The first three shrink as they walk into well-proportioned adults, while India and Africa grow to the same healthy size. As they continue to walk side by side they all gradually get smaller at the same rate, illustrating the idea of the fair targets per head.
http://newearthdeal.org |