Obama must pledge at July G8 to keep global warming below two degrees

BONN, Germany — “Slow progress at the U.N. climate talks in Bonn is proof positive that the world needs to hear U.S. President Barack Obama say he is pursuing a climate pact with a very good chance of keeping global warming below two degrees celsius, ” said Annie Petsonk, Environmental Defense Fund International Counsel, on Friday.

“When President Obama goes to the July G8 meeting in Italy, he’ll be on stage with world leaders asking him, ‘Are you willing to commit and say we have to limit warming to two degrees above pre-industrial levels?’ “

“He has to be able to stand up and say yes. Because if he wavers, these talks will crumble into 180 government pledges that don’t add up to stopping dangerous climate change,” Petsonk said in Bonn, as the latest round of U.N. climate talks came to a close.

“The painstakingly slow progress we’ve seen in Bonn tells us that countries are waiting for Obama to come forward and say what science-based goal he is aiming for,” Petsonk said.

“Right now we’re just treading water,” she said. “Because without that basic measure without knowing how much warming the world’s richest nation is willing to accept nobody has any way of knowing how much negotiation and compromise is needed.”

Petsonk said many nations were signaling, on the sidelines of the Bonn session, a willingness to move forward if the U.S. President shows he is committed to leadership. She pointed to Wednesday’s announcement by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying Brazil is open to adopting a greenhouse gas emissions target if rich countries do more to curb climate change.

Andrea Welsh / 202-572-3230 / awelsh@edf.org