International Climate Change Conference Bonn, Germany July 21st 2001
Briefing papers: Environmental groups

You are from an environmental network with groups in many countries throughout the world. You are here at the Climate Change Conference because you are desperately worried about global warming, climate change and its effects on people and the environment.

You are only an observer at this conference. That means that you can watch what¹s going on but you are not allowed to say anything, however desperately you want to! However, when there is a break between sessions, you can have meetings with anyone you like (provided they will listen to you). You want to get your point of view across, so you have to listen very carefully to find out what the different delegations are saying. You need to know who might be your allies at this conference. You are very frustrated by these talks. You have listened to more than 10 years of talks about climate change, with no real action. Meanwhile, the extreme weather disasters have just got worse and worse.

Some people like the oil companies deny that global warming exists, or say that it's not important. But you know that six of the warmest years in history were all during the 1990's. You know that the glaciers are melting and the Arctic Sea ice is only about half as thick as it was 30 years ago. You are terribly afraid about the effect of future water shortages and droughts on people in poor countries where lack of access to clean water is already killing far too many people.

You have member groups in places like Central America, which a few years ago saw a terrible hurricane which killed 10 000 people in floods and mudslides. It made hundreds of thousands of people homeless and destroyed the land they grew their crops on.

You have members in places like Orissa in India, which only recently has seen a terrible flood which swept away over 10,000 people and destroyed agriculture in the area . . . and these are only two examples, you could go on and on.

IT IS TIME TO STOP BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE ! You know that there is another way!

If we cut down on our use of energy, not so much fossil fuel would need to be burned in the first place. If we invested money in renewable, clean, safe ways of generating electricity, we could save the climate from global warming.

It is perfectly possible to generate all the energy we need from renewable sources like wind and solar. This is a fact which some countries seem to want to ignore.

You are also clear who the main guilty ones are. Even by 2012 people in the USA, Canada, or Europe will still emit more greenhouse gasses per person that citizens in India or Mozambique.

Your main aim at the conference is for the Kyoto Protocol to be agreed and signed. The USA will try to make excuses and wriggle out of its promises, but this is just not good enough. It is the future of the whole planet at stake.