December 2, 2002—The 8th Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Change Convention concluded recently with the adoption of a Ministerial “Delhi Declaration.” It calls for all countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in the face of growing evidence of the damage done by climate change, and the need for greater efforts to combat climate change in coming decades.
“Recent flooding and extreme weather events in many parts of the world have dramatically shown how vulnerable human societies are to climate change,” said EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrm. “Floods, droughts and other adverse impacts have caused thousands of human casualties and billions of Euro in damage. Science tells us that these events are likely to become more frequent and intense in many areas as the climate warms. We need to act together in the international community to deal with this global threat.”
Around 170 countries, which represent more than three-quarters of the world’s population, met in Delhi for the 8th Conference of the Parties. The meeting made good technical progress on monitoring and agreed to work to increase public awareness of climate change. During the final Ministerial segment of the meeting, Ministers discussed the disturbing findings of the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which show that most of the acceleration in global warming is man-made.
“The EU ratified the Kyoto Protocol on 31st May this year. It has met its existing commitment under the UN Climate Convention to stabilize its greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels,” confirmed Commissioner Wallstrm. The EU is putting in place a wide range of measures to ensure that it can meet its 8% reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. The Delhi Declaration recognizes that actions are already taking place to cut greenhouse gas emissions in developed and developing countries, and all countries agreed to increase the exchange of information on these policies in order to develop an effective response to climate change.
Furthermore, Ministers recognized that developing countries are most affected by climate change, as they have fewer resources to adapt to the changes that are occurring, and the EU confirmed its commitment to provide its share of $410 million of funding per year as from 2005 to support action in developing countries. Based on a report from the European Commission.
