Nordic Region should show the way in the climate process
There is a need for Nordic leadership on the way to a new global climate treaty. The Nordic countries must serve as a model, for example through binding themselves to considerably higher reductions in emissions than today. This was the opinion of climate expert, Tove Ryding from Greenpeace, at a seminar in the Nordic Council of Ministers in Copenhagen on Wednesday 17 June.
In Ryding’s opinion before 2020 the Nordic countries should reduce their emissions by at least 40 per cent in relation to the levels in 1990. That will also be in line with the central role that the Nordic countries otherwise play in the climate process with Denmark as host for the COP-15 meeting in December and Sweden as EU President.
Ryding had hoped that the climate declaration adopted by the Nordic prime ministers recently would have been more ambitious and detailed. The declaration states, amongst other things, that the global increase of the emission of greenhouse gases must be halted by 2020, and for this to happen the industrialised countries must commit to considerable reductions in the medium term.
The Norwegian climate expert, Harald Dovland, was cautiously positive in regard to the possibilities for reaching a new climate agreement in Copenhagen. However, he underlined that it was unlikely that all the details would be in place by December.
Christian Ibsen, climate negotiator from the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy, stressed that many details still need to fall into place, not least how the countries will support the poor countries of the world against climate changes. Tryggvi Felixson, head of the Nordic Council of Ministers' environment department, said that the Nordic countries are making an example by the decision to use the Nordic Development Fund for this purpose. The Nordic ministers for co-operation have decided to support climate projects in developing countries with an amount running into double figures in millions of euros annually.
Felixson stressed that climate matters have had a high priority in Nordic co-operation for a long time. He referred, amongst other things, to a climate report which the Nordic Council of Ministers had drawn up as early as 1990. Felixson also reported on a number of Nordic climate and energy related ventures, including the Top-Level Research Initiative, Nordic Climate Day and the energy trade show, Nordic Climate Solutions.
Wednesday’s seminar was organised by the Nordic Region in Focus and the Nordic Council of Ministers in co-operation with the Nordic COP-15 group, which is made up of climate experts from every Nordic country. The meeting was part of a climate tour of the Nordic capitals up to the UN's major climate summit in Copenhagen.
The Nordic Region in Focus in Denmark
COP15 conference in Copenhagen
