Guardian Unlimited Books Special Reports Gore's plea on climate change wins ovation

Bonn, 26 May 2006--A first round of UN climate negotiations for the period following the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol has successfully concluded in Bonn, Germany.
“We have set an ambitious agenda which focuses on a sound process leading towards science-based emission reduction targets on the part of industrialized countries within the next few years” said Michael Zammit Cutajar, Chair of the “Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol”. “There is a strong sense of urgency and there’s clear consensus that there should be no gap after 2012, when the first commitment period ends”, he added.
The Kyoto Protocol requires 36 industrialized Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below levels specified for each of them in the Protocol. Overall, this should amount to reductions of at least 5% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
Richard Kinley, acting head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat said: “Developing countries, which will be hit hardest by climate change, are pushing for rapid agreement on deeper emission cuts. This is the message we have also been hearing from business leaders meeting here in Bonn, who have underlined the importance of a speedy process from their perspective. Obviously, the carbon market needs clear signals.”
The issue of new technologies and private sector also featured prominently in the first round of the “Dialogue on long-term cooperative action”, open to all 189 Parties to the Convention, which were held earlier during the Bonn meeting.
“Industrialized countries have emphasised the importance of these negotiations being based on the latest scientific data and taking into account new technological solutions available today” said Gao Feng, UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary, Implementation. “Negotiations on the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol and discussions in the ‘Dialogue on long-term cooperative action’ are mutually reinforcing in shaping international action to combat climate change”, he added.
Halldor Thorgeirsson, UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary, Scientific and Technological Advice, pointed towards the progress that had been made in the Convention’s subsidiary bodies during the May meeting. “Representatives have been excited by the prospects offered by new technologies such as carbon capture and storage”, he said. “Countries agreed to take forward the work on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries.”
The next rounds of negotiations under Kyoto Protocol and talks under the Convention will take place at a United Nations Climate Change Conference from 6 to 17 November in Nairobi, Kenya.

Referring to the urgency of the "planetary emergency", he urged his audience to take their own action to combat climate change. "I want you to arm yourselves with knowledge. I want you to learn it in your own words. I want you to make the changes in your own lives," he said. "Become an activist as a consumer, as a voter, as a citizen."
Describing the threat posed by global warming, he said there had been "an utter transformation in the relationship between the human species and our planet", which gave humankind the capacity to do lasting damage. "We now have the capacity to literally change the relationship between the Earth and the sun."
He warned that action or inaction would be judged by future generations. They would ask, he said: "What were they thinking? Didn't they see this coming? Were they too distracted? Were they too busy? Didn't they care?"