Greenpeace reaction to the Informal Ministerial Meeting on the Preparation

Bogor, Indonesia — Greenpeace welcomes the initiative of the Indonesian government to host this informal meeting of ministers prior to the next round of climate negotiations in Bali in December. It builds on the momentum created at the recent high level UN summit on climate change and sends a strong political message that governments are ready and willing to negotiate seriously in Bali.
The Bali meeting must produce an ambitious negotiating framework that results in deeper emissions cuts from developed countries, broader country participation, and a reduction in carbon emissions through the elimination of deforestation.

It should create a mechanism that will deliver an energy revolution based on renewable energy and energy efficiency and include a way of paying for the impacts of climate change that can no longer be avoided, especially in the developing world.

We welcome the acknowledgement from Ministers that these negotiations must begin in Bali. They must also recognize the need for urgency and set a deadline of 2009 for agreement on this package.

Strengthening and deepening the Kyoto Protocol for its second phase post 2012 should be the focus for all governments. Recent initiatives outside of this process have promoted ’aspirational’ targets and a voluntary regime. These are at best a distraction from the crucial task of protecting the climate and at worst a deliberate attempt to derail Kyoto, allowing business as usual. We urge governments to resist being led down this ’road to
nowhere’.