CAFOD calls for Doha summit to build foundations for fair and effective climate deal

From 26 November to 7 December, negotiators from around the world will gather in Doha, Qatar for the COP18 climate summit.

CAFOD, as a member of CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis networks which represent 180 Catholic development agencies, is calling for greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, money on the table to support the vulnerable communities most affected by climate change, and clear progress towards a global climate deal in 2015 at Doha.

In order to pave the way towards a fair, effective and binding deal, CAFOD, CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis, are asking all countries to take responsibility for addressing climate change. The world’s most advanced economies must lead by reducing their emissions significantly, so that global warming can be limited to 1.5 degrees, as vulnerable countries are demanding.

The Kyoto Protocol is currently the only legally-binding global tool to reduce emissions, but many of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters are not part of the treaty or have not signed up to a second commitment period, due to start in January 2013.

Lack of ambition

CAFOD director and president of CIDSE, Chris Bain, said: “The main problem is lack of ambition. The new World Bank report, Turn Down the Heat, shows that we are on our way to a temperature rise of four degrees Celsius or more. This is only the latest of a series of alarm bells that all countries must react to.

“We need deeper emission cuts and sustainable low-carbon economies to safeguard future generations and to protect the most vulnerable people already suffering increasingly extreme weather.”

Rich countries must keep their promises

Vulnerable communities must be supported to adapt to a changing climate. In 2009, and again at the climate talks in Durban last year, developed countries committed to provide US$100 billion a year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries. In Durban they also set up a new Green Climate Fund, which CAFOD supported as part of our Don’t Drop the Ball campaign.

However, there has been little progress on getting the Fund up and running. While governments, including the UK, have provided finance up to the end of 2012, poor countries are increasingly worried that the funds are drying up. There are no clear figures from the developed countries on finance for climate action in 2013, let alone plans for how they will reach the US$100 billion promised by 2020.

Sarah Wykes, CAFOD's lead analyst on climate change, said: “Superstorm Sandy reminds us of the huge human and financial costs of extreme weather. Poor people are the most affected by climate-related disasters such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes, which have caused over a million deaths since 1980, the majority in the least developed countries. These countries are bearing the brunt of climate change but account for less than 1 per cent of the emissions causing it.

"Governments meeting at Doha must fulfil their promise to put sufficient and reliable money on the table so poor countries can cope with climate change.”

Notes to editors

• CIDSEis an international alliance of Catholic development agencies. Its members share a common strategy in their efforts to eradicate poverty and establish global justice. www.cidse.org
• Caritas Internationalis is aconfederation of over 160 Catholic charities working together for social justice and an end to poverty. www.caritas.org
• Agriculture in the Climate Talks and the Food Security Imperative: Which Way to Just Solutions? Side-event at the UN Climate Talks in Doha, 28 November 2012, 20:15
• Researchers at Brown University's climate and development lab have estimated that climate-related disasters caused around 1.3 million deaths since 1980. Two-thirds of these deaths (over 909,000) occurred in Least Developed Countries. Cited in An open letter to Obama from the world's poorest countries, Letter from Pa Ousman Jarju, Chair of the Least Developed Countries group at the UNFCCC to President Obama, 8 November 2012.