June 03 2013 • 00:32

by rvoorhaar

Climate Action Network (CAN) urged countries to continue to make progress outlining the elements of a comprehensive, global agreement that puts us on the path to fair, sustainable development at the UN climate negotiations opening in Bonn, Germany, today.

“Every moment counts,” said Enrique Maurtua Konstantinidis from Climate Action Network Latin America. “Especially given that atmospheric carbon pollution concentration just pushed through the 400 parts per million landmark and that there is likely to be as few as five negotiating sessions between now and when the global agreement is supposed to be signed in 2015.”

Key elements that need to be taken forward to the major talks in Warsaw in November include a way to fairly measure national climate action and financial support which takes into account differing circumstances as well as defining the structure and principles of the agreed international mechanism to deal with communities and cultures which are irretrievably lost as a result of climate change.

Sivan Kartha, from the Stockholm Environmental Institute, said agreeing a way to measure fairness of climate action could be the key to unlocking progress towards the 2015 agreement.

At the same time, Jason Anderson from WWF said countries need to commit to concrete steps to reduce carbon pollution before 2020.

“CAN – the world’s biggest network of NGOs working on climate change – is urging countries to put their support behind a plan for leaders to increase their  2020 carbon pollution reduction commitments next year at a summit being held by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon,” Anderson said.

“This is vital if we are going to rectify the fact we are not doing nearly enough to deliver a safe climate,” Maurtua

Konstantinidis said.

The year was not even half way over and we had already seen devastating floods in Argentina and the melting of Arctic sea ice being linked to not only Australia’s harshest ever summer, where they needed new colors to define hot on the map but also a frozen spring in Europe and North America.