Your excellencies: Mr. Pachauri, Chairman
of the IPCC, Mr. Hong Yan, Deputy Secretary-General of World
Meteorological Organization, Mr. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Distinguished
delegates, Ladies and gentlemen:
Over the coming five days, delegates to
this 27th session of the IPCC will boil down the wealth and the welter of
information enshrined in the working groups of the 4th assessment into one
seamless and succinct synthesis report.
Why? because what is produced here in Valencia is the
guide that every one of the thousands of delegates attending the crucial
climate convention meeting in Bali will be packing in their suitcases and
slipping in their back pockets.
It is the final full stop behind the question as to
whether climate change is happening and the likely impacts-many of which
will happen in the time-frame of people alive today, not in some far
distant future.
But the IPCC in 2007 has also offered the world not just a
glimpse of a kind of climate-powered Pandora's box, but the key to another
box-a box of opportunities from cost effective energy efficiency and
cleaner energy options to ones linked to transport, forests and
agriculture..
It will not cost the Earth to save it-perhaps as little as
0.1 per cent of global GDP a year for 30 years.
It is not an over-statement to say that the momentum on
climate change in 2007 has being nothing short of breath taking - this is
in no small part due to the work of the IPCC and its scientists-work that
has built on nearly 20 years of achievement.
And here I would like to pay tribute to Dr. Pachauri and
his inspirational Chairmanship but also to the Co-chairs, Bureau, the
Secretariat and the Technical Support Units for their tireless work.
And last but not least to all scientists who have devoted
voluntarily their knowledge, time and energy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation are the
IPCC's parents-we are of course very proud parents.
But I believe we are also active and involved parents and
partners. Indeed, the cross-fertilization between the IPCC's work and
UNEP's is broad and dynamic.
There are many good example but let me mention one-the $9
million UNEP-Global Environment Facility "Assessments of Impacts and
Adaptation to Climate Change" (AIACC).
In his forward to the report, to be launched in Bali, Dr
Pachauri, notes: "The Fourth Assessment Report advances our understanding
on various aspects of climate change based on new scientific evidence and
research. A major contribution in this regard has come from the work
promoted under AIACC.
The relationship is two way. UNEP last month launched its
flagship Global Environment Outlook-4-the five year peer-reviewed work of
some 1,300 scientists including many who also work for the IPCC.
Meanwhile, GEO-4 takes a great deal of the IPCC findings
and weaves and links these across the wider environmental issues- from
water and waste to land and marine- in order to gain greater understanding
of the sustainability challenges and opportunities facing the people and
the planet.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to see this mutual
self-interest in the fields of science and assessment evolve to a new
level.
This is why I have asked the Director of UNEP's Division
of Early Warning and Assessment to step up cooperation and engagement in
the IPCC process over the coming weeks, months and years. I propose this
cooperation be based on the common responsibility of bringing an
understanding of the IPCC findings to bear on national development
processes.
This is in addition to UNEP's long standing relationship
via the environmental conventions division.
Because, colleagues countries facing the climate challenge
now increasingly need assistance and eventually resolution on the question
of national impacts-not least for national action on adaptation or
'climate proofing economies'.
UNEP, through its existing structures; its Bali Strategic
Plan and One UN work with members of the UN system including UNDP, can
assist in bridging that gap with policymakers in capital cities through a
variety of lenses including the sustainable consumption and production
lens.
Ladies and gentlemen,
UNEP will continue to support the
secretariat in more nuts and bolts ways. UNEP, working with Dr Pachauri
and his team, have provided a great deal of support to the writing and
dissemination into the public domain of the findings of 4th assessment
report.
UNEP continues and will evolve its support in terms of
outreach including creative ways of communicating complex issues to policy
makers and other stakeholders via creative tools-graphics for example.
Making governments, business, cities, civil society and
citizens understand the risks but also the rewards they face is part of
the heavy lifting needed if we are to sustain the transition to a low
carbon society over the long haul.
2007 has been an extraordinary year-it is not yet at an
end. Dr Pachauri, we will be glued to our TV and radio sets on 10 December
when in Oslo you receive jointly the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the
IPCC and its scientists.
But we hope you do not stay in Norway too long-we need you
back in Bali!! There is much work too do-work on a post 2012 emission
reductions regime-work given ever greater clarity and urgency by the
sobering but also empowering new reports of the IPCC.
Thank you
Source:
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Press release.
