Change is urgently needed in climate

This week, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban brings together representatives of the world's governments, international organizations and civil society in a final bid to advance the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and its Kyoto Protocol, before the Kyoto Protocol expires on Dec 31, 2012.

Change is needed urgently. The world cannot afford to delay further action to tackle climate change if the target of limiting the global average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius is to be achieved. This is the temperature ceiling that scientists say would give the world a reasonable chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. A new report by the United Nations Environment Program confirms that current emissions reduction pledges made by governments are inadequate to achieve this target. And emissions have risen, once again, in the past year, making it one of the warmest in recorded history.

It is vital that we continue to strive for a binding international agreement, and to increase our level of ambition with respect to emission reduction targets. At the same time we must also tackle, in an integrated way, the social dimensions of the issue: poverty, population growth, resource management and risk reduction, to name a few. The world must learn to grow and develop not only in a greener, more climate friendly way, but also more inclusively.