WWF calls for clear targets and early action on climate change

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called for a comprehensive climate change agreement to build on the Kyoto protocol, at a UN Summit in New York.

The WWF’s position calls for an ambitious comprehensive climate agreement to be negotiated within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, building on the Kyoto Protocol, by no later than 2009. This agreement, it says, should set clear and binding targets to reduce emissions for industrialized countries as well as quantifiable actions for more advanced developing nations.

Hans Verolme, director of WWF's Global Climate Change Program, said: "Governments have finally realized that climate change poses a real danger to the planet. For world leaders to come together under the UN umbrella and to commit to deeper cuts in emissions is a watershed moment."

The WWF also said economic assessments indicate that the benefits of early action on climate change greatly exceed the cost of reducing emissions. The UN Secretary-General must call for an end of the fossil fuel age by mid-century.

“This week's floods in Africa are a reminder of the vulnerability of the world's poor to abrupt changes in climate.

Hans Verolme, director of WWF's Global Climate Change Program

Hans Verolme, director of WWF's Global Climate Change Program, commented: "The benefits of clean energy far outweigh the costs. But catastrophic changes to the climate could devastate economies, especially in the developing world. Support for clean technologies should be a top priority for the Secretary-General."

Finally, the WWF calls on the UN Secretary General to pressure rich nations to put funds aside to help developing nations deal with the worst impacts of climate change.

Verolme added: "This week's floods in Africa are a reminder of the vulnerability of the world's poor to abrupt changes in climate."