G7-SUMMIT/NGO REACTIONS NGOs pleased with G7 progress on climate change, but say it's not enough

Record ID: 150540

  • Title: G7-SUMMIT/NGO REACTIONS NGOs pleased with G7 progress on climate change, but say it's not enough
  • Date: 8th June 2015
  • Summary: GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN (JUNE 8, 2015) (REUTERS) G7 PRESS CENTRE VARIOUS OF HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE POLITICS AT GREENPEACE, MARTIN KAISER, WORKING JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE POLITICS AT GREENPEACE, MARTIN KAISER, SAYING: "Elmau has delivered. With the decisions on climate change, the vision of a 100% renewable energy supply has got
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA378V4KYTIQBYCDI4874T0TX52
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: World leaders have made good progress on combating climate change, but more can still be done, two NGOs said on Monday (June 8) as the G7 summit came to a close in southern Germany.
    Group of Seven leaders said they had agreed to wean their economies off carbon fuels and support a global target for limiting the rise in average global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels.
    In a communique issued at the end of their two-day summit at the luxury Schloss Elmau Castle in Bavaria, the G7 leaders said they supported a worldwide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at the top end of a recommended 40-70 percent bank by 2050, using 2010 as a basis.
    "We commit ourselves to play our part in achieving a low-carbon global economy in the long-term, including by the development and use of innovative technologies and will strive for a restructuring of the energy sector by 2050," the communique read.
    A spokesperson for Greenpeace said "Elmau has delivered", saying the visions of having a 100% renewable energy supply had been given a boost.
    "Elmau has also given a clear signal that by the mid-century you have to faze out coal and oil, out of the energy system. With the Elmau decisions it has also become clear that with Germany, the Europeans and President Obama, there is a strong alliance to lead towards a global agreement in Paris by the end of the year," head of international politics at Greenpeace Martin Kaiser told Reuters TV at the summit.
    "Both for Merkel and Obama, climate change has been an important topic until now. It was not clear whether they can jointly join forces against Canada and Japan at the summit here in Elmau but ultimately they both have to deliver at home. With storms and flooding in the United States and with the coal problem of Merkel here in Germany, both needed the kind of good outcome here in Elmau to translate it into changes at home," Kaiser added.
    A spokesperson for anti-poverty charity Oxfam also welcomed the announcement but added that leaders could still do more to fight the threat of climate change.
    "We see something new in it but it's not nearly enough to show what the G7 will do to deliver an outcome on climate this year. They are committing to do more than they have said in the past but still the fundamental question is how much will they cut and how much will they fund the global funding challenge to convert the economy to a de-carbonised economy," policy director of Oxfam America Gawain Kripke said.
    Kripke added that he was disappointed with the lack of movement on finding a clear strategy to fight poverty.
    "The communique says nice things about the goal of eliminating poverty and also of ending hunger but again the specifics aren't clear. They put a number of 500 million, to eliminate hunger and malnutrition for 500 million people which would be great but if you look at the text carefully, it doesn't really commit the G7 to delivering that outcome and certainly doesn't commit them to funding that outcome," he said, adding:
    "I think they could go further and we have a big conference later this year that will prove whether the global community is committed to ending poverty and hunger or not and so this could have been the moment when the G7 said they will do their share."
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