EDF Urges Focus in Poznan on Absolute Global Emissions Cap

Poznan, Poland (Dec. 3, 2008) - U.S. nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund urged world leaders to stay focused on the only real measure of success - an absolute cap on global greenhouse gas emissions - at the United Nations climate talks that opened here today.

EDF officials said the Poznan conference, a major step on the path to negotiating a new global climate change treaty, will be energized by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s pledge to engage vigorously in climate talks when he takes office Jan. 20.

“The United States spent the past eight years as a global outcast on climate change — and now it’s a whole new game,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, an expert in climate change negotiations who is heading EDF’s delegation observing the U.N. conference. “There is a new reality. The U.S. is a serious player. We hope that will be a catalyst for other reluctant nations to also step forward and say what they will do to reduce global emissions.”

Haverkamp said the Poznan climate change negotiators need to confront tough issues, including deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by northern nations and the inescapable reality that the world?s new leading and emerging economies need to move toward reductions as soon as possible to stabilize the global climate.

Environmental Defense Fund endorses three major policy goals during the Poznan conference:

• To open global carbon markets to tropical forest nations by allowing market-based financing for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) - one of the most cost-effective ways to cut global emissions
• To move beyond the clean development mechanism - a piecemeal approach ? and to insist that new proposals invite broader participation by nations and also ensure an absolute decline in global emissions fast enough to avoid catastrophic global warming
• To explore flexible global frameworks that encourage all nations to participate in lowering carbon emissions - each according to its capacity - so that all nations are invited to share in the responsibilities and rewards of global investments in clean technologies