Recent reports by the world’s foremost scientists are unequivocal: climate change is a reality, but its effects are not irreversible if action is taken now.
It is in that spirit of urgency that the recently concluded 116th Assembly of the IPU, held in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, selected Global warming: Ten years after Kyoto as the theme of its general debate and approved a Presidential Declaration on climate change.
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The Presidential Declaration urges the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to develop a feasible roadmap for long-term cooperation on its implementation. The world’s legislators present at the IPU Assembly pledged to raise the issue in their parliaments and to question their ministers on how they were preparing for the forthcoming Conference of the Parties meeting scheduled for December. They want to see progress specifically in the areas of deforestation, financial mechanisms, and technology transfer.
Mr. J. Zillman, former President of the World Meteorological Organization, addressed the Assembly. He said that climate change was central to everything controlling the distribution of all human and natural systems worldwide and their change over time. Economies were acutely climate-sensitive, and climate change would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and many lives. Fifteen years had passed since agreement had been reached on a system of global climate watch, but the resources required to set up the system had not materialized. He called for an immediate injection of funds into the undertaking, as the benefits would greatly outweigh the costs. Mr. Zillman also appealed for a more informed debate on climate change and greater objectivity in interpreting science for policy development and national support for agenda-free public goods research.
A panel discussion on the same theme was held under the direction of Mr. Emil Salim, former environment minister of Indonesia. The panel provided a forum for lively debate on the environmental and economic repercussions of climate change, and policy options to respond to the challenge. In addition to Mr. Zillman, panellists included Mr. Y. Yatsu, MP, President of the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE), Japan; and Ms. Eka Melisa, of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Indonesia.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon sent a message recalling the role of parliamentarians in the climate change issue, and prompting them to take further action.
In her own message to the Assembly, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, recalled that "The general theme of the IPU meeting – the urgent need for legislators actively to address global warming and climate change – is a special concern as well as of my colleagues in the United States Congress. As legislators from around our planet gather in Nusa Dua, we express our hope that the IPU can find new ways to understand and to work cooperatively to successfully deal with this urgent threat to us, and to our children and grandchildren".
