Commenting on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC, Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said:

"Gore is a worthy winner of the prize. Climate change is a huge threat to the peace and security of the world as huge population movements and conflicts over diminishing resources loom on the horizon. We know his campaigning has made an impact globally, but it’s in the United States where his work has made the most difference. He took on the powerful American climate-sceptic lobby, exposed them, largely sidelined them and managed to shift opinion. Now even his one-time opponent Bush doesn’t bother denying man-made global warming."

He continued:

"Recognition of the work of the IPCC is overdue. On a matter as important as climate change, where powerful interests are pushing for inaction, it is creditable science that will move policymakers, and that science has for many years been provided by the IPCC. Their reports are the bedrock on which the case for action has been made. These are critical years in the fight to slash CO2 emissions, and with the science of the IPCC being waved in their faces our leaders are finding it increasingly difficult to dither."

A 2003 Pentagon report warned that climate change posed a huge threat to global stability. Analysts stated: 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life. Once again, warfare would define human life.'

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/feb/
22/usnews.theobserver

On 17th April 2007, then UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett spoke to the UN Security Council, describing climate change as a 'security imperative'.

Greenpeace press office – 0207 865 8255.

President George Bush has today invited representatives of major industrialised and developing countries to a 'climate change summit' in September. Reacting to the news, Greenpeace's senior climate campaigner Robin Oakley said:

"It's a step forward that Bush no longer denies man-made global warming, but there has to be a concern that this is yet another attempt to derail the UN climate change negotiations set for December in Indonesia. Bush speaks about aspirational goals and voluntary targets. That's his vision and it's just not serious.

"Gordon Brown must not allow Bush to distract the UN from December's meeting, where the goal must be the kind of deep binding emissions cuts that Bush still strongly opposes. That's the only way we'll keep temperature rises below two degrees centigrade, beyond which we face dangerous climate change.

"If Gordon Brown goes to Washington he should tell the president that the UN is the only place to agree a successor to Kyoto, and that the UN process will go ahead with or without this lame duck White House. As it is, Brown could more productively use his time there meeting Bush's likely successors, all of whom are serious about fighting climate change."

At the 2007 G8 meeting in Germany, Bush agreed that his conference would contribute to the wider UN effort, but this is not credible while he still opposes binding international targets.

The president, who plans to address the conference on September 27 and 28, sent invitations to the European Union, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan, China, Canada, India, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and the United Nations.

ENDS

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255

New report is final piece in jigsaw, now world leaders must act.

As the last of three ground-breaking climate change reports by leading UN scientists was published in Bangkok, Greenpeace today demanded that world leaders finally wake up to the scale of the climate crisis and act immediately to slash emissions.

"The final piece of the jigsaw in now in place and our leaders have no more excuses," said Charlie Kronick, Greenpeace UK's senior climate campaigner.

"Action to cut greenhouse gas emissions is now the great calling of our time. This year the world’s leading scientists have told us it’s happening, we’re causing it and it's a huge threat to our species. Now they're saying we can act to prevent the worst impacts without breaking the bank, the technology already exists, but we have to start now. This report should be top of Gordon Brown’s summer reading list."

The report, "Mitigation of Climate Change", by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded there are severe risks entailed in delaying emission reductions and that the scale of the action to reduce emissions in the next two to three decades will determine how severe climate change will be.

The study states:

• The technology already exists for countries to tackle the issue through the greater use of renewable energy sources and improving overall energy efficiency.

• Even the aimed-for level of a 2 degree increase could mean up to two billion people facing water shortages by 2050 and could threaten extinction for 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the world's species.

• Stabilising greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid escalating temperatures could cost significantly less than the cost of inaction.

• Climate models have underestimated the level of emission reductions needed to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations, making the need to act more urgent.

• "Safety, weapons proliferation and waste remain as constraints" on nuclear power.

• An enormous contribution to mitigating climate change can be made by protecting the world's forests.

For more information, contact Greenpeace on 0207 865 8255.