Mens polerne smelter, havene stiger, stormene raser og klimaet ter sig vildt ser det ud til, at verdenssamfundet er enedes om at sætte kampen mod klimaforandringer og deres virkninger ind som et selvstændigt mål i den nye udviklingsdagorden mod 2030.
NEW YORK, 26 August 2014 (IRIN): Following months of lobbying by poor island states and NGOs, action on climate change is to be a stand-alone goal among the 17 newly agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs = dagsorden 2030)
The SDGs, a successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs =2015 Målene) which expire at the end of 2015, are to be formally adopted at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly on 24 September.
SDG Number 13 reads: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”
The goal notes that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC = FNs Klimapanel)) is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.
One of the two main obstacles the pro-stand-alone climate change goal lobbyists faced was the fact that there already is a UN legal mechanism to deal with climate change – the UNFCCC. It is expected to deliver a new treaty on how to address climate change at a conference in Paris next year.
“There were some countries that felt we do not want to prejudge (afgøre på forhånd) the provisions of the new agreement next year,” said Caleb Otto, Palau’s ambassador to the UN.
This was a “legitimate concern”, said Saleemul Huq, a senior research fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
But he was glad the counter-argument prevailed as one “cannot consider sustainable development for the next 20 years without the overarching impact of climate change”.
“How can you think of development, when….”
The questions many poor countries were asking, said Caleb Otto, were:
“How can you expect Bangladesh to develop sustainably when it is constantly flooded? Do you expect sub-Saharan countries to talk about development when they are constantly fighting drought?”
How can you expect Pacific Ocean islands to think about sustainable development when they continuously have to deal with storm surges and a rising sea level?”
At the end of the day, Huq explained, UNFCCC is a legal instrument while the SDGs are “aspirational targets that align everybody to common goals”, so in a sense they were two separate issues but with synergies that needed to be drawn out.
There have been numerous calls by leading development experts to ensure that the new climate treaty, the new SDGs, and the new disaster reduction treaty (updating the Hyogo Framework for Action) should reflect the synergies between climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development, as they are all inter-related.
Obstacle No. 2
Læs videre på http://www.irinnews.org/report/100538/higher-profile-for-climate-change-in-new-sdgs
