GREENPEACE TO CLINTON: DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON THE CLIMATE!

Activists protest in front of US embassy in Tel Aviv - CO2 emissions must be reduced

Tel Aviv, 22 October 1997

Greenpeace activists today protested peacefully in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv, criticizing US President Bill Clinton for failing to support stronger international agreement to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that cause dramatic climate changes.

The activists held a banner in front of the embassy reading in English and Hebrew "Clinton: let's weather the storm together - Stop the greenhouse effect - Cut CO2" ". They also delivered a letter to the US acting ambassador Mr. Richard Ross, asking his government to cut CO2 emissions. The US alone produces about a quarter of global CO2 emissions and is projected to be the worst contributor of greenhouse gases well into the next century.

"The US is principally to blame for the lack of progress in international negotiations to radically cut CO2 emissions," said in Tel Aviv Ofer Ben-Dov, campaigner of the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office.

"President Clinton seems to be paralyzed by pressure from the fossil fuel industry at home. Rhetoric and no action has dominated the US negotiators in several meetings ahead of the climate conference in Kyoto, Japan, next December," Ben-Dov added.

167 governments will convene in Kyoto for the Third Conference of the Parties (COP-3). Greenpeace believes that, as a minimum first step, industrialized countries like the US must commit at the Kyoto climate conference to a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by 2005, with 1990 as base year.

Since 1991, US oil and gas interests alone have donated 53.4 million dollars to candidates and their parties. During the 1995/6 period, the Clinton administration has failed to support strong international targets to cut CO2 emissions, despite promises made by former President George Bush at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. (1)

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the next century. Independent scientists noted that the continued rise of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will lead to dangerous interference with the climate system. This will lead to more and stronger storms, floods and droughts as well as to extensive ecosystem damage. The Mediterranean region will also be effected.

Climate change will threaten food production, sustainable development and natural ecosystems. Sea-level rise, extreme weather events and vector-borne diseases will pose hazards to the citizens of the developing world. The economies of these countries are the least capable of dealing with the high and unpredictable costs of the expected large-scale destructive natural disasters and their effects.

Greenpeace is very concerned about the fact that the Clinton administration is floating a range of targets which would stabilize CO2 emissions at 1990 levels by 2010, 2020 or 2030. If this proposal is adopted at Kyoto, it would wipe out any chance to achieve real and meaningful reductions in the gases that cause dangerous global warming.

Greenpeace urges President Clinton to drop those plans and fully support the proposal to a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by 2005, with 1990 as base year.

For more information contact:

Ofer Ben-Dov, campaigner of Greenpeace Mediterranean in Israel, tel: 03-5102079 mob: 052-433694

Executive Director Dr. Mario Damato, ++356-667167

NOTE: 1. The Clinton administration fears to take a leadership role in climate change because it is bowing to a Republican-dominated senate greased by the oil industry. Greenpeace USA published a report last Monday (20 October), "Oiling the Machine: Fossil fuel dollars funneled into the US political process", saying that oil companies like ARCO have donated money to several senators. back to text