KAIROS Statement on the UN Conference on Climate Change Durban, South Africa
We call on the members of our KAIROS churches and all people of good will to join us in urging the government of Canada to champion the following three goals at the November-December 2011 UN Conference on Climate Change at Durban, South Africa: 1) Keeping the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, by renewing the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol for the period beyond 2012 with adequate emission reduction commitments. 2) Reducing our own emissions to 40% to 50% below 1990 levels by 2020 in order to make restitution for the ecological debt we owe to the peoples of the global South and to the whole Earth community. As a first step towards this goal, Canada should immediately redirect the $1.4 billion in annual federal subsidies to fossil fuel industries to programs to promote energy conservation and development of renewable forms of energy. 3) Cancelling the financial debts of the nations of the Global South and providing sufficient funds for climate adaptation and mitigation measures through a United Nations body independent from International Financial Institutions such as the World Bank. This would be a further step in making reparations for the ecological debt we owe the Global South.
