Reacting to calls for the COP process to be reformed (1), Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer MP said:
“This is a timely call for reform of an international forum that has achieved a great deal but now needs to drive action in the face of the dire climate crisis the world faces.
“COP has brought the world together and succeeded in putting scientific evidence at the heart of policy making.
“It has set out the scale of the crisis the world faces and has agreed, in principle, that those countries which have caused the crisis should be funding the loss and damage experienced by those who are bearing its costs.
“In addition, the international agreement to phase out fossil fuels is vital and urgent.
“However, the crucial next phase of making change happen is being derailed by the fossil fuel lobby and complicit nation states.
“The election of a climate change denier as US President whose election call was ‘drill, baby, drill’, underlines the need to reform the COP process.
“We need to move urgently to a new phase of implementation, where COP becomes the forum to hold governments to account and push forward a change agenda, including supporting countries to adapt to the impacts of the crisis already being felt.
“To achieve this, we must exclude the fossil fuel companies and their lobbying arms and strengthen the representation of those countries and indigenous peoples most impacted by climate change.
“COP has succeeded in highlighting the need for urgent change and has laid the foundations for achieving that, but it must now reform and refocus on making change happen.”
NOTES TO EDITORS