Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

FROM THE FIELD

World Business Summit on Climate Change falls short in delivering what is needed - Oxfam
26 May 2009 15:54:54 GMT
 Source: Oxfam GB - UK
220803 logo

Background

•  Climate change

MORE >>

Global business leaders failed to make the giant stride needed to tackle climate change and fell short in providing the targets and numbers needed, international aid agency Oxfam said as the World Business Summit delivered its Copenhagen Climate Call today.

The communiqué issued by the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen remained unchanged from a draft version, despite three days of negotiations between leading businesses. The outcome amounts to a “tiny step” as opposed to the “giant step” needed, according to Oxfam.

Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs, who spoke at the summit, said:

“It’s a mystery how such influential and passionate voices could demand more urgency and specific commitments from the global business community - from Ban Ki-Moon, to Al Gore, to progressive businesses - only to be ignored in the final statement,” he said. “It is ironic that Prime Minister Rassmussen’s remarks at the end were clearer on targets for CO2 emissions cuts than the Summit was able to make to him.”

Hobbs continued: “In speeches and in the corridors, we heard many businesses talking loudly and persuasively for urgency and a safe and fair global deal just 200 days out from final negotiations - but the Summit’s statement let them down. This meeting articulated the scale of the problem but not the specifics of the solution.”

Hobbs added: “The Summit’s statement is only a tiny step in pushing for the right political recipe when it could have been a giant stride. It asked for 50% global cuts by 2050 when we need at least 80%. It mentioned mid-term cuts by 2020 - but gave no number: we need at least 40% in developed counties. It mentioned the importance of adaptation finance to poor countries - but again no number: we need at least $50bn a year. These are all deal-breaking issues that this Summit should have tackled but did not.”

/Ends

Notes to Editors:

For interviews, please contact, Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International Executive Director: +447718533157 or Phil Bloomer, Oxfam Director of Campaigns and Policy: +447720259769

More than 800 business leaders gathered at The World Business Summit in Copenhagen from 24-26 May 2009.


More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Politics of Aid

•  Climate change

MORE >>

Members

•  Oxfam GB - UK

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  World Business Summit on Climate Change falls short in delivering what is needed - Oxfam
Oxfam GB - UK

•  Pakistan’s displaced people: one woman’s story
Oxfam GB - UK

•  Weekly digest
Oxfam GB - UK

•  ALTERNATIVE TAX AWARDS GET ACCOUNTANTS TALKING ABOUT POVERTY
Christian Aid - UK

•  Global business poised to push governments on climate deal, says Oxfam
Oxfam GB - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

•  Generous Pakistani civilians donate food, other aid and cash to displaced

•  China praised at climate talks for planned curbs

•  DIARY - Global Environment

•  Pelosi says climate change could change U.S.-China game

•  Australia govt faces further carbon-scheme delay

MORE >>

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

Topics
Politics of Aid Climate change

Related articles

Breaking stories
 Generous Pakistani civilians donate food, other aid and cash to displaced (1 minute ago)

China praised at climate talks for planned curbs (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 Donors or survivors: who are aid groups more accountable to? (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 World Business Summit on Climate Change falls short in delivering what is needed - Oxfam (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Map pinpoints SE Asian vulnerability to climate change (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Asia Pacific: Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Small Islands (Feb 2009) (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-26T153029Z_01_AFR08_RTRIDSP_2_SOMALIA-CONFLICT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR08.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-25T135312Z_01_GFM101_RTRIDSP_2_CLIMATE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/GFM101.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-25T135009Z_01_GFM104_RTRIDSP_2_CLIMATE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/GFM104.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-22T001110Z_01_SAO105_RTRIDSP_2_BRAZIL-CLIMATE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SAO105.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-22T001025Z_01_SAO106_RTRIDSP_2_BRAZIL-CLIMATE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SAO106.htm

Internally displaced civilians receive food aid distributed by the U.N. World Food Programme at a camp outside Somalia's capital Mogadishu, May 26, 2009. A surge in violence this month has killed ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue May 26 15:56:23 2009