بيروت –1 ديسمبر 2009: اليوم عقدت اللجنة النيابية للأشغال العامة والنقل والطاقة والمياه وبرنامج الامم المتحدة الانمائي في البرلمان اللبناني إجتماعا حول تغير المناخ ولمناقشة السياسات المطروحة في قمة كوبنهاغن. وحضر الإجتماع ممثلي الشعب اللبناني من نواب ومنظمات مجتمع المدني وهيئات القطاعين العام والخاص وممثلي منظمات الدولية.

وبعد البحث و النقاش أصدر الحاضرون بيان "نداء بيروت الى قمة كوبنهاغن" لدعم الموقف الديبلوماسي اللبناني في أهم محادثات في تاريخ البشرية لتغير المناخ التي سوف تبدء في الأسبوع القادم. وقد جاء فيها نقاط شددت على أهمية تلك المحادثات المصيرية وتطالب رؤساء وممثلي دول العالم اقرار اتفاقية طموحة وملزمة وعادلة في كوبنهاغن، تتضمن عدة أهداف، أهمها:

·       المحافظة على ارتفاع درجات الحرارة في العالم الى ما دون الدرجتين المئويّتين، ومن ثم اعادة تركيز معدل ثاني اوكسيد الكربون الى أقل من 350 جزء في المليون.

·       التخفيف من الانبعاثات العالميّة للغازات الدفيئة، بحيث تبلغ ذروتها عام 2015 كحد أقصى، ومن ثم العودة في العام 2020 مقارنة بمستوى الإنبعاثات في سنة 1990.

·       تخفيض انبعاثات ثاني أكسيد الكربون ب80% بحلول سنة 2050 الى ما كانت عليه في سنة 1990.

·       على الدول المتقدمة كمجموعة أن تخفض انبعاثاتها بأكثر من 40% بحلول العام 2020 وأكثر من 95% بحلول العالم 2050 مقارنة بمستوى الإنبعاثات في العام 1990.

·       مطالبة الدول النامية كمجموعة أن تخرج عن الخطّ الأساسي لنموّ الانبعاثات بنسبة أكثر من 30% بحلول العام 2020، وأن تخفض هذه الانبعاثات إلى أكثر من 65% بحلول العام 2050 من مستواها في العام 1990.

·       مطالبة الدول المتقدمة أن تؤمّن تمويلاً سنويّاً بأكثر من 200 مليار دولار أمريكي من موازنتها العامة لمساعدة الدول النامية في الانتقال إلى اقتصاد منخفض الكربون بحلول العام 2020.

·       إيقاف كل الدعم المادي غير المجدي المخصص للفحم والنفط وعدم دعمٍ التكنولوجيّات غير المستدامة، مثال الطاقة النوويّة والطاقة من حرق النفايات.

"في وقت يحضر فيه الوفد اللبناني نفسه للذهاب لكوبنهاغن، تصدرهذه الوثيقة كداعم مبدئي للفريق المفاوض في وقت دقيق وفعال"، صرح وائل حميدان، مدير حملة تغير المناخ في الرابطة العالمية للناشطين إندي-أكت. أضاف حميدان: "هذه الوثيقة هي الموقف العربي الأقوى حتى الآن، هو موقف جريء لكنّه ضروري جدّاً".

"نتمنى على الحكومة اللبنانية تبني هذا النداء كموقف رسمي للبنان، فلدينا الكثير لنخسره ونحن لسنا مستعدون للمساومة بمستقبل لبنان بعد الآن. هذه الوثيقة تأكيد منا على إلتزامنا بموقف حازم من تغيرالمناخ ونناشد الحكومة اللبنانية لتبنّي هذا النداء كالموقف التفاوضي للبنان"،يضيف النائب محمد قباني.

"تعتبر الأمم المتحدة أن تغيّر المناخ هو أكبر تهديد للحياة على الأرض، ولدينا أقلّ من عشر سنوات لتجنّب آثاره الكارثيّة. لهذا السبب، قمة كوبنهاغن موعدنا مع القدر، فإما أن نؤسس الى اتفاقية قوية تنقذنا من هذه الكارثة أو نوقع على وثيقة انتحار"، صرح مدير برنامج الامم المتحدة الانمائي في لبنان الدكتور سيف الدين آبارو.

أكثر من 60 رئيس دولة وحكومة، بينهم أولئك في الولايات المتّحدة، المملكة المتّحدة، ألمانيا وفرنسا، تعهّدوا بحضور هذا الحدث التاريخي. طوال هذا العام، معظم الحكومات في العالم كانت قضيّة تغيّر المناخ بالنسبة لها أولوية قصوى. لم يكن لبنان واحداً منها.

تشارك إندي-أكت في مفاوضات كوبنهاغن بوفد من 43 شخص يضم خبراء في سياسات تغير المناخ وناشطين وإعلاميين ومشاهير لدفع الدول العربية والعالمية للوصول الى اتفاقية طموحة وملزمة.

-      النهاية –

المزيد من المعلومات عن إندي-آكت: http://indyact.org/

صور هذا الحدث سوف تكون متاحة على: http://indyact.blogspot.com/

للمزيد من المعلومات، الرجاء الاتصال بـ:

Beirut – 1 December2009: Today, The parliamentary committee of General works and transport and energy and water and the UN development program in the Lebanese Parliament held a meeting on climate change and to discuss the policies raised in Copenhagen summit. The meeting was attended by representatives from the parliament, NGOs, bodies from the public and private sectors and representatives of international organizations.

After study and discussion the attendees released the statement of “Beirut call to Copenhagen Summit” to support the Lebanese diplomatic position in the most critical talks in the history of humankind  on climate change which will be launched next week. The statement included points that stressed the important of this crucial negotiations and demanded world leaders and representatives to endorse an ambitious and binding and fair treaty in Copenhagen that include several issues:

• Keeping the rise in global temperature below two degrees, then readjusting the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million.
• Decreasing global emissions of greenhouse gases in the way that they reach their peak in the year 2015 at most, then decreasing back in the year 2020 in comparison with 1990 emissions level.
• Decreasing carbon dioxide emissions by 80 % by the year 2050 in proportion to 1990 emissions level.  
• Developed countries as a group must decrease their emission more than 40 % by the year 2020 and more than 95 % by the year 2050 in proportion to 1990 emissions level.
• Demanding developing countries as a group to get out of the main prospect of emissions growth to more than 30 % by the year 2020, and to decrease these emissions to more than 65 % by the year 2050 in proportion to 1990 emissions level.
• Demanding developed nations to provide a yearly funding not less than 200 billion US dollars of its National Budget to help developing countries to move to a low carbon economy by the year 2020.
• Stop all the unavailing financial support to coal and oil and refrain from supporting unsustainable technologies like nuclear energy and the energy from burning waste.

“Within the time that the Lebanese delegate is preparing to go to Copenhagen, this document is issued as an initial support for the negotiations team in a crucialand effective time”, said Wael Hmaidan, The Head of Climate Campaign in The Global League of Activists IndyACT.  Hmaidan added: “this position is the strongest Arab position so far, it’s courageous but necessary”.

Parliament member Mohamed Kabbani added: “We hope that the Lebanese Government adopt this call as Lebanon’s official position, because we have alot to lose and we’re not ready to compromise on Lebanon’s future anymore. This document is a confirmation from our side that we are committed to a firmposition toward climate change and we urge the Lebanese government to adopt the call as Lebanon’s position in the negotiations”.

“United Nations considers that climate change is the most dangerous threat to life on earth, and we have less than ten years toavoid its catastrophic impacts. That’s why, Copenhagen is our date with destiny; or we establish a strong treaty that saves us from this disaster or wesign a suicide pact”, said the Director of UN development program in Lebanon D.Seyf El-Din Abaro.

More than 60 head of state and government, including those in the United States, United kingdom, Germany and France have pledged to attend this historical meeting. For most governments around the world during this year, climate change was a top priority. Lebanon wasn’t one of them.

IndyACT is participating in Copenhagen negotiations with a delegate of more than 43 individuals including experts on climate change, activists, journalists and celebrities to push the Arab and world governments to reach an ambitious, fair and binding treaty.

-        The End –

Formore information, please contact:

Photos of this event will be available on: http://indyact.org/

-         Wael Hmaidan, The Executive Director of IndyACT, Phone / Fax: +961-1-447192 ,Mobile: +961-3-506313, Email: whmaidan@indyact.org

Beirut – 19 November 2009: Today, activists from the Global League of Activists, IndyACT, carried out a peaceful action in the Annual Conference of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development – AFED, to demand the Arab states for active participation in the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, and to urge them to not tobe drawn behind the obstructive Arab states in the negotiation process. They also called on them to take their moral responsibilities to insure the safety of the Arab world and the planet from a tragic fate.

In an unprecedented action, two activists from IndyACT lifted a banner during the opening session of the conference, which criticized the obstructive role played by some oil exporting Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia in the climate negotiations. The banner said “Arabs are more than oil” to indicate that the current Arab position is based on protecting the oil trade more than protecting Arab citizens from the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Other activists carried a banner in front of the entrance to the conference’ hall that says “we can’t drink oil”, while wearing diving suits, highlighting two major impact of climate change: shortage in fresh water and the rise in sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps. The activists also distributed hundreds of leaflets that explained the expectations of the activists and Arab citizens from their representatives in the Copenhagen negotiations.

Fossil fuel, like oil and coal, are the main cause of climate change. To solve this problem, nations must cut their dependence on oil and coal as the main source of energy and turn into renewable energy. That’s why Saudi Arabia considers the war against climate change as a threat to its oil trade, its main source of economical and political power. “Oil is a limited and very valuable resource and we should preserve every drop of it for future generations. Most of the products we consume today are made of petroleum derivatives. If we burn all the oil now we will deprive future generations from all these products and we will destroy the human civilization by causing climate change”, said Wael Hmaidan, Head of the climate change campaign in IndyACT.

A new report by the International Energy Agency showed that OPEC nations will increase their profits four folds between now and 2030,even if all nations in the world cut their carbon emissions to the level needed to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. “AFED report showed today that the Arab world will extremely suffer economically and socially due to climate change, and all of the world’s oil will not make up this loss”,concluded Hmaidan.

-End-

Notes to editor:

Photos of the event will be available on:
http://indyact.blogspot.com

Further information on IndyACT can be found on:

www.indyact.org

For more information please call:

-        Wael Hmaidan, executive directorof IndyACT; Tel- fax: +961-1-447192; Mobile: +961-3-506313, email: whmaidan@indyact.org

NGOs from Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Fiji, India, Mexico, Ghana, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Solomon Islands and Togo sent a clear message to Saudi Arabia by organizing events in front of Saudi embassies or UN institutions, and holding banners with messages like "Saudi Arabia Stop hurting developing countries interests".

The NGOs groups said that Saudi Arabia considers an ambitious climate agreement is a threat to its oil trade, and historically it has been accused to prevent countries from reaching such an agreement. These NGOs are concerned with the increasing delaying tactics of the Saudi delegation in the negotiation process, and how this is affecting the urgent needs of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. Just in the last negotiation session alone, Saudi Arabia has managed to undermine and block consensus on several key issues that are important for developing countries. They tried to remove language that specifically support poor and vulnerable countries; they delayed progress on adaptation discussions; they were the only country to block consensus on having an additional negotiations session; and they even were the only country that said that there is no need to agree on numerical global goal for emission reduction.

"Developing countries need all the support they can get, and it is unfortunate to have a country among their ranks that is weakening their positions", said Wael Hmaidan from IndyACT Lebanon and founder of the Arab Climate Alliance, present at the negotiations in Barcelona.

As the negotiations for a new climate agreement is drawing closer to an end this December, there is a need for governments to benefit from every opportunity to push  the process forward. Most NGOs agree that the main obstacle in the negotiations is the lack of ambition of developed countries. Nevertheless this ambition will not change if developing countries do not work together to raise pressure on developed countries. "A united and strong position by developing countries is crucial for the success of the negotiations, and Saudi Arabia is preventing that", added Hmaidan.

Saudi Arabia is one of the most active developing countries in the negotiations. Its delegation is big, skilled, well experienced and probably the strongest developing counties' delegation. "We would like to see Saudi Arabia supporting the positions of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and not work against them", said Hmaidan. "Saudi Arabia is an industrialized rich country, and can withstand some losses in its oil revenue, while poor communities and the planet will be devastated by climate change. ", he concluded.

-End- 

Notes to editor:

 - Photos from different countries of the event are available at: http://indyact.blogspot.com

For more information please call:

 - Wael Hmaidan, executive director of IndyACT: Tel- fax: +961-1-447192

Mobile in Barcelona: [0034672836012], email: whmaidan@indyact.org 

Bangkok/Thailand: October 08, 2009 - Today IndyACT, with the support of Germanwatch released an analysis slamming Saudi Arabia for blocking and obstructing key elements in the international climate negotiations that are deemed important for safeguarding the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The study analyzed the positions of various Arab governments in the current round of climate talks due to conclude in a new global agreement in Copenhagen this coming December.

The analysis examined all 22 countries in the Arab region. The socio-economical situation varies across countries, and it ranges from rich newly industrialized countries whose economy is based on oil trade, to least developed countries that suffer from extreme water shortage. 

Therefore, the needs and interests in this process differ from one Arab country to another. The main commonality between all these countries is that climate change will severely impact the livelihood of their communities.

"Despite the variability in the region, the current Arab position is mainly focused around protecting the oil-trade rather than saving the planet from the adverse impacts of climate change. Saudi Arabia has utilized its political weight in the region, as well as benefited from the indifference of many Arab governments towards this issue in order to dominate the Arab voice;" said Wael Hmaidan, Executive Director of IndyACT.

Historically, the Arab region has been very influential within the climate change negotiations process. For example, Saudi Arabia has a sizable delegation with long experience and strong skills, making it comparable to any developed countries delegation. This year, Sudan, which is both a least developed country and an oil exporter, is chairing the Group of 77, while Algeria, an OPEC member, chairs the African group. "The Arab governments can actually push the process forward substantially, but this requires the strong involvement of all other countries in order to create a balanced position for the region," announced Hmaidan.

Many NGOs are concerned with the increased influence of Saudi Arabia, who has been recognized as an obstructionist, among developing countries, and how this will affects the urgent needs of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. "The poorest and most vulnerable countries delegations have been finding less and less space in this negotiation", said Raju Chhetri from United Mission to Nepal.

The past two weeks alone, Saudi Arabia has managed to undermine several key issues that are important for the poorest and most vulnerable countries. They tried to move language that would specifically support poorest and most vulnerable countries; they delayed progress on adaptation discussions by insisting the inclusion of the adverse effects of response measures, although governments agreed to include it under mitigation in Bali Action Plan in 2007; they were the only country to block consensus on having an additional informal negotiations session the second half of November; and they even were the only country that said that there is no need to agree on a numerical global goal that determines exactly where we need to reach to save the planet from the catastrophic impacts of climate change. "Since 2006 Germanwatch has annually presented the International Climate Change Performance Index. Saudi Arabia was always the worst performer, based on three criteria: emissions level, increase of emissions and expert judgement regarding their international climate policy", said Christoph Bals, Policy Director of Germanwatch.

The lack of ambitious target by developed countries is the main reason why there has been a lack of progress in this negotiations process. 

Nevertheless, it is crucial that developing countries come with the strongest positions in order to increase the pressure on developed countries. "The Saudi position in these negotiations allows developed countries to hide their very low pledges for mitigation and finance commitments. It gives them the possibility to point at the blocking positions of G77 and China and neglects the positive development within many countries in the group especially that of least developed countries and small island states", concluded Bals