de Brún hosts Climate Change Roundtable

24 November, 2008

Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún today brought together representatives from the Climate Change lobby today, Monday 24th November, at 2pm in Stormont.

Ms de Brún is a member of the European Parliament Environment Committee and the Temporary Committee on Climate Change.

She will be attending the UN Conference on Climate Change in Poznań, Poland in early December.

Speaking after the meeting Ms de Brún said:

“This was an important opportunity to bring together people working on Climate Change from across the north.

“We stand at an important crossroads in setting out the way forward in how we respond to the threat of Climate Change.

“The UN Climate Change Conference in PoznaÅ„ in December provides the opportunity to draw together the advances made in 2008 and move from discussion to negotiation mode in 2009 and to build momentum towards an agreed outcome at Copenhagen.

“The election of Barrack Obama in the US has also given rise to a new optimism that we will see a new decisiveness.”

Ms de Brún also pointed out the need for local action saying:

“There needs to be a detailed Executive integrated strategy on adapting to Climate Change and to set out how we are going to meet our carbon emissions targets. This strategy should spell out how each sector of the economy and society can contribute to reducing these emissions.” ENDS

Note to Editors

The Poznań UN Climate Change Conference aims to:

  • Agree on a plan of action and programmes of work for the final year of negotiations after a year of comprehensive and extensive discussions on crucial issues relating to future commitments, actions and cooperation;
  • Make significant progress on a number of on-going issues required to enhance further the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol;
  • Advance understanding and commonality of views on ’shared vision’ for a new climate change regime; and
  • Strengthen momentum and commitment to the process and the agreed timeline.

Other important issues will be capacity-building for developing countries, reducing emissions from deforestation (REDD), technology transfer and adaptation.