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Montreal, Canada 10 December 2005 - Greenpeace today congratulated the 157 countries, who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, as they moved the landmark climate change treaty towards deeper emissions reductions after 2012.

"The Kyoto Protocol is stronger today than it was two weeks ago. This historic first Meeting of the Parties has acknowledged the urgency of the threat that climate change poses to the world's poorest people, and eventually, to all of us. The decisions made here have cleared the way for long term action," said Bill Hare, Greenpeace International Climate Policy Advisor in Montreal.

The parties have agreed the following:

• To start urgent negotiations on a new round of emission reduction targets for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013-2017). A special group has been established to ensure that these negotiations are concluded "as soon as possible". This is necessary to ensure the continuity of carbon markets, and to allow governments to put policies and measures in place to ensure that the new, deeper emission reduction targets are met.
  
  
• To start now to review and improve the Kyoto Protocol. Mandated under the existing treaty, this review will formally begin at next year's meeting.
  
  
• A Five Year Plan of Action on Adaptation, to assist least developed countries to cope with the impacts of climate change. This programme will begin to address the fact that climate change already impacts the world's poorest, and that it will get much worse in the coming decades. It is the ethical, political, and legal responsibility of the industrialised countries to provide for this.

As expected, the Bush administration attempted to derail the process, at one point even walking out of the negotiations, but the rest of the world showed a resolve to move ahead regardless. For once, the Bush administration was forced back to the table and into agreement with the international community. No doubt the overwhelming presence of US civil society at these talks has had a positive effect.

The US has continued to attempt to lure countries away from the UN multilateral climate regime with its international emission trading to an ineffective approach based on voluntary actions and 'partnerships'. Today, however, governments have agreed to hold substantive talks beginning in May 2006 on the Kyoto Protocol's second commitment period, sending an unmistakable signal that we are on the road to new and more ambitious targets.

Stop Climate Chaos launch in London, September 2005

Leading Non-Government Organisations - including Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, the Women's Institute and Worldwide Fund for Nature - have written to Tony Blair urging him not to undermine the Kyoto Protocol or retreat from a target-based approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Stop Climate Chaos, a new coalition of developmental and environmental NGOs, has expressed serious concerns about the Prime Minister's recent comments that legally binding targets to reduce pollution make people "very nervous and very worried." The group argues that the UK government must play a key role in ensuring a new set of binding Kyoto targets form the central plank of international climate change policy after 2012, when the current agreement ceases.

Mr Blair's remarks, which were contained in his speech at a summit of environment and energy ministers in London last week (Wednesday 2 November), also included references to the perceived tension between targets and economic growth. In May, business leaders from 13 major UK and international companies wrote to Tony Blair offering to support the Government in developing new, longer-term policies for tackling climate change. Many businesses argue that long-term binding targets offer much greater certainty for investment in renewables, energy efficiency and innovation towards a low-carbon economy.

Dr Ashok Sinha, Director of Stop Climate Chaos, said: "Tony Blair's recent remarks on climate change are giving Kyoto's opponents - in particular President Bush - the ammunition to kill off the Protocol. For a Prime Minister who has championed climate change throughout his EU and G8 Presidency Tony Blair is now in real danger of undermining the most important climate change agreement ever.

Stop Climate Chaos is urging the UK government to argue the case for legally binding targets at the UN talks on climate change in Montreal later this month. The international conference will focus on combating climate change after 2012.

Dr Sinha added "The decisions world leaders are making now will affect everybody's future so it is crucial that Tony Blair continues to fight for an approach which will help combat the most devastating impacts of climate change."

Download a copy of the letter here (Adobe PDF format).

Editor's notes
Stop Climate Chaos will mobilise its millions of members and supporters to put pressure on the government, whose plans to tackle climate change fall far short of what's needed. The coalition wants the government to slash the UK's global warming gas emissions and make fighting climate change a key part of its plans to deal with global poverty.

The members of Stop Climate Chaos are: Airport Watch, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Medact, National Federation of Women's Institutes, Network for Social Change, Operation Noah/Christian Ecology Link, Oxfam, People & Planet, Practical Action, RSPB, Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, Sustrans, Tearfund, Woodland Trust and WWF-UK

The signatories to the letter to the Prime Minister are: Stop Climate Chaos, Green Alliance, South African Climate Action Network (SACAN) and Yayasan Pelangi Indonesia, Vitae Civilis and Institute for Development, Environment and Peace.

For further information, please contact:
Alison Sutton, WWF press office; asutton@wwf.org.uk