Bound by the same views on the crucial role oceans play in climate change, Indonesia and the US have united with 76 other countries to call on the world to give the oceans a central role at UN climate change talks.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the world community to include the World Ocean Conference’s (WOC) results into December’s climate negotiations in Copenhagen.
Say cheese!: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (center) and delegates at the World Ocean Conference (WOC) pose for a group photo following the opening of the high-level meeting of the conference at the Grand Kawanua Convention Center in Manado on Thursday. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
“It is my hope that the outcome of this conference and the historic document of the Manado Ocean Declaration [MOD] that we will issue here will form one call that is loud and clear, for the world to care for and take care of its oceans,” he said in his opening speech Thursday before delegates from 76 countries.
He said the call must be heard by the international community and other stakeholders negotiating
a new post-Kyoto climate change regime.
“It must be made clear what we are doing here is not to produce a new process but to strengthen and complement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC],” Yudhoyono said.
“Simply put, the ocean community wants ocean issues to be part of the ongoing global climate change solutions.
“If the Climate Convention in Copenhagen adopts that approach, and the international community and all stakeholders carry it out faithfully, humankind will have a much brighter outlook.”
The UNFCCC is an international treaty on environmental issues, dealing primarily with climate change and reducing global warming. Currently, nearly 200 countries have ratified the convention, first enforced on March 21, 1994. The Copenhagen meeting will discuss a new regime on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
In a rare sign of open support for environmental talks, the US joined Indonesia’s call, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praising the conference for helping focus world attention on the link between oceans and climate change, and for laying the groundwork for the Copenhagen talks.
“The WOC provides an opportunity for representatives from many nations to unite around this common concern,” she said in a statement.
Clinton acknowledged the strong links between the health of the planet and the health of the oceans, pointing out that today the oceans were under stress from various sources, including acidification, overfishing, unconstrained development, and pollution, which damaged coastal regions and led to global warming, in turn causing rising sea levels and more intense storms.
“In just a few months the UN will host its conference on climate change in Copenhagen. It is critical that we lay as much groundwork as possible now to ensure a successful outcome. At the WOC you can help focus the world’s attention on the link between oceans and climate change and advance global efforts to find science-based solutions to the problems we face,” she said.
The US is notorious for resisting multilateral talks on environment and climate change — underlined by its refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol — instead preferring bilateral or regional steps to tackle the problems.
US President Barack Obama, however, has decided to change the stance, vowing to be actively involved in any climate and environmental talks.
Clinton reminded the world of the human costs of climate change, pointing to the fate of coastal communities, especially in developing countries, that have been hard hit by the effects of global warming.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|