|
http://climatecongress.ku.dk/newsroom/congress_key_messages/
12 March 2009
Copenhagen, Denmark: Following a successful International
Scientific Congress Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges
& Decisions attended by more than 2,500 delegates from
nearly 80 countries, preliminary messages from the findings
were delivered by the Congress? Scientific Writing Team. The
conclusions will be published into a full synthesis report June 2009. The conclusions were handed over
to the Danish Prime Minister Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen today.
The Danish Government will host the UN Climate Change
Conference in December 2009 and will hand over the
conclusions to the decision makers ahead of the Conference.
The six preliminary key messages are:
Key Message 1: Climatic Trends
Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of
observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario
trajectories (or even worse) are being realised. For many
key parameters, the climate system is already moving beyond
the patterns of natural variability within which our society
and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters
include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise,
ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and
extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that
many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing
risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.
Key Message 2: Social disruption
The research community is providing much more information
to support discussions on "dangerous climate change". Recent
observations show that societies are highly vulnerable to
even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and
communities particularly at risk. Temperature rises above
2oC will be very difficult for contemporary societies to
cope with, and will increase the level of climate disruption
through the rest of the century.
Key Message 3: Long-Term Strategy
Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation based on
coordinated global and regional action is required to avoid "dangerous climate change" regardless of how it is defined.
Weaker targets for 2020 increase the risk of crossing
tipping points and make the task of meeting 2050 targets
more difficult. Delay in initiating effective mitigation
actions increases significantly the long-term social and
economic costs of both adaptation and mitigation.
Key Message 4 - Equity Dimensions
Climate change is having, and will have, strongly
differential effects on people within and between countries
and regions, on this generation and future generations, and
on human societies and the natural world. An effective,
well-funded adaptation safety net is required for those
people least capable of coping with climate change impacts,
and a common but differentiated mitigation strategy is
needed to protect the poor and most vulnerable.
Key Message 5: Inaction is Inexcusable
There is no excuse for inaction. We already have many
tools and approaches ? economic, technological, behavioural,
management ? to deal effectively with the climate change
challenge. But they must be vigorously and widely
implemented to achieve the societal transformation required
to decarbonise economies. A wide range of benefits will flow
from a concerted effort to alter our energy economy now,
including sustainable energy job growth, reductions in the
health and economic costs of climate change, and the
restoration of ecosystems and revitalisation of ecosystem
services.
Key Message 6: Meeting the Challenge
To achieve the societal transformation required to meet
the climate change challenge, we must overcome a number of
significant constraints and seize critical opportunities.
These include reducing inertia in social and economic
systems; building on a growing public desire for governments
to act on climate change; removing implicit and explicit
subsidies; reducing the influence of vested interests that
increase emissions and reduce resilience; enabling the
shifts from ineffective governance and weak institutions to
innovative leadership in government, the private sector and
civil society; and engaging society in the transition to
norms and practices that foster sustainability.
About the congress
The International Scientific Congress on Climate Change
is taking place in Copenhagen 10 ? 12 March. More than 2,000
participants are registered. The congress has received
almost 1,600 scientific contributions from researchers from
more than 70 countries. The preliminary conclusions from the
congress will be presented Thursday 12 March at the closing
session of the congress and will be developed in a synthesis
report to be published in June this year. The synthesis
report will be handed over to all participants at the United
Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December in
Copenhagen by the Danish Government. It is organized by
International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU):
- Australian National University
- ETH Zürich
- National University of Singapore
- Peking University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Cambridge
- University of Copenhagen
- University of Oxford
- University of Tokyo
- Yale University
DISCLAIMER: THIS PRESS RELEASE IS WRITTEN BY THE CLIMATE
SECRETARIAT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN. THE PEOPLE
QUOTED DOES NOT NECESSARILY SHARE THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY
OTHERS IN THIS TEXT.
| University
of Copenhagen |
Contact: |
| Climate Office |
+45 61 16 32 33 |
| Nørregade 10, P.O. Box 2177 |
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
| DK-1017 Copenhagen K |
|
GSMV is nothing more and nothing less
than a decentralized conservation awareness group identified by magnets
and stickers. This tight visual medium contains a comprehensive
political, environmental, social, and economic message. We hope that
this is part of a larger and more diverse trend of visually-based
microactivism.
Checking in again after a weekend trip to Houston, TX.
12.99 gallons got me 590.5 miles in my 2009 Civic LX (automatic), for an average of 45.458 mpg.
About 550 miles of this was highway driving, at speeds of 50-60 mph (depending on weather, road conditions, traffic flow, etc), with about 40 miles of city driving thrown in (I get about the advertised 25 mpg in the city).
I have my iDrive55 window cling posted on my rear driver's side window for passing cars to see.
