WCC UPDATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE:

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAMME
c/o The United Church of Canada
3250 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Canada M8X 2Y4
tel. 1-416-231-5931 fax. 1-416-231-3103
24 hr. voice mail for David Hallman 1-416-231-7680 ext. 5051
e-mail for David Hallman: dhallman@uccan.org
alternate e-mail for David Hallman: dhallman@sympatico.ca

Memo to: WCC Climate Change Network

From: Dr. David G. Hallman, Coordinator, WCC Climate Change Programme

Re: WCC Climate Change Update #22

Date: November 11, 2001

Dear Friends,

The seventh session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP7) in Marrakech Morocco ended yesterday with
an agreement on the technical language related to the Bonn Agreement from
this past July at COP6b.

This means that the 165 nations endorsing the Marrakech consensus have
adopted guidelines for implementing the Kyoto Protocol. Nations can now
proceed to introduce the necessary domestic legislation to ratify the Kyoto
Protocol. The UN hopes that enough countries will have ratified by next
September to allow the Kyoto Protocol to be declared as being in force as
international law at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in
Johannesburg, Sept 2-11, 2002. The WSSD occurs ten years after the Rio Earth
Summit at which the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was
adopted.

Enclosed with this update are:

  1.. The closing COP7 press release from the Secretariat of the UNFCCC;
  2.. An analysis of the results from Greenpeace International;
  3.. The text of the World Council of Churches Statement to the COP7
High-Level Segment presented by WCC delegation member Elias Abramides of
Argentina.
Best wishes, David

a) UNFCCC Press Release 10-Nov-01

UNITED NATIONS

FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE - Secretariat

PRESS RELEASE

Governments ready to ratify Kyoto Protocol

Marrakech, 10 November 2001 - Parties to the UN Climate Change Convention
have finalized the operational details of the Kyoto Protocol, opening the way
to widespread ratification by governments and the Protocol's early entry into
force.

"After several years of tough negotiation, the institutions and detailed
procedures of the Kyoto Protocol are now in place. The next step is to test
their effectiveness in overseeing the five-percent cut in greenhouse gas
emissions by developed countries over the next decade," said Michael Zammit
Cutajar, the Convention's Executive Secretary.

"We have also made important progress on strengthening the flow of financial
and technological support to developing countries so that they can move
towards a sustainable energy future. The Marrakech results send a clear
signal to business, local governments and the general public that
climate-friendly products, services, and activities will be rewarded by
consumers and national policies alike," said Mr. Zammit Cutajar, who after 10
years in his post will be stepping down at yearend.

The meeting also adopted the Marrakech Ministerial Declaration as an input
into next September's World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg. The Declaration emphasizes the contribution that action on
climate change can make to sustainable development and calls for capacity
building, technology innovation, and cooperation with the biodiversity and
desertification conventions.

The finalized Kyoto rulebook specifies how to measure emissions and
reductions, the extent to which carbon dioxide absorbed by carbon sinks can
be counted towards the Kyoto targets, how the joint implementation and
emissions trading systems will work, and the rules for ensuring compliance
with commitments.

Symbolizing the transition now being made to an operational Kyoto regime, the
conference also elected 15 members to the Executive Board of the Clean
Development Mechanism. This will ensure a prompt start to the CDM, whose
mandate is to promote sustainable development by encouraging investments in
projects in developing countries that reduce or avoid emissions; developed
countries then receive credit against their Kyoto targets for emissions
avoided by these projects.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol will enter into force and become legally binding
after it has been ratified by at least 55 Parties to the Convention,
including industrialized countries representing at least 55% of the total
1990 carbon dioxide emissions from this group. So far, 40 countries have
ratified, including one industrialized country (Romania). Many governments
have called for the entry into force to take place in 2002.

The Marrakech conference, which is the seventh session of the Conference of
the Parties to the Convention (COP 7), was attended by 171governments and a
total of some 4,500 participants. COP 8 will be held from 23 October to 1
November 2002; India has offered to be the host.

b) Greenpeace International Press Release 10-Nov-01

KYOTO IS THE KEY - NOW USE IT!

10 November 2001

Marrakech - At the close of COP7, the latest negotiations on the Kyoto
Protocol, the international agreement aimed at preventing dangerous climate
change, Greenpeace today described the outcome as a hard won battle for a
token outcome.

"Governments may be congratulating themselves now, but what have they really
achieved? As climate change bites harder, leaders of the future will look
back on the Marrakech meeting as a lost opportunity and realise that the
participants of COP7 should have done more to tackle climate change," said
Bill Hare, Greenpeace climate policy director.

"But the Kyoto Protocol is just a small start in what must be an ongoing and
ever increasing commitment to reduce greenhouse gases globally. Now that the
architecture of the Protocol is in place, parties have no excuse to delay
ratifying and implementing it.

"The Kyoto Protocol is the key to preventing dangerous climate change. The
door has only just been unlocked. Now we have to fling it wide open."

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) was initially designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from industrialised countries by 5%. By the end of the Bonn negotiations last
July, the effectiveness of the Protocol had already been substantially
weakened. Emission reductions in the order of 80% are needed if dangerous
climate change is to be prevented.

"We still have a long, long way to go. This is just the beginning," said
Hare.

After two weeks of negotiations, the fine details of the implementation of
the Protocol have been ironed out - but there are still many problems. These
include: Russia has been allowed about a 100% increase on its already
generous forest management sinks allowance, from 17 Megatonnes to 33
Megatonnes of carbon per year. A lost opportunity to contribute concrete
recommendations on how to tackle climate change at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (Rio +10) in Johannesberg
in September 2002 by, for example, calling for a major program of renewable
energy to bring electricity to the 2 billion people of the world who
currently do not have access to electricity.

Failure to concretely stop the banking of forest and other land use sink
credits, which will lead to higher fossil fuel emissions in the future.
Failure to ensure that the eligibility to take part in the trading system is
tied to properly reporting on forest activities used for sink credits.

However there have been some minor environmental victories during the past
two weeks of negotiations. These include:

- New provisions for public participation in the Clean Development Mechanism
that will help the public monitor and have input
into proposed CDM projects.

- Enforceable rules that ensure that countries must adhere to a set of rules
on reporting, monitoring and verification of emissions before being able to
use the Kyoto mechanisms: emissions trading, Joint Implementation and the
Clean Development Mechanism.

- Ensuring that it is possible to geographically locate and verify areas of
land claimed for sink credits.

- Quality control standards for reporting on sink credits.

c) WCC Statement to COP7 High-Level Segment

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES STATEMENT

7th Session of the Conference of the Parties - COP7

to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Marrakech - Morocco

November 8, 2001

Religion has a significant role to play in promoting care for the Earth. We
share a common conviction as to the seriousness of the climate change problem
and the need for co-operation among all religions, scientists and states;
among all the communities and peoples of the world, regardless of creed,
language or ethnic identity.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has participated in the
Inter-Governmental Negotiating Committee sessions on climate change under the
auspices of the United Nations since 1989.

On every occasion of the annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) since 1995,
the WCC has sponsored ecumenical and interfaith events on climate change. In
1997 when the UN Climate Change Conference (COP3) was held in Kyoto, Japan,
the WCC co-sponsored inter-religious events with Buddhist, Shinto and
Christian organisations.

The UN Climate Change Conference in 2001 (COP7) is the first negotiating
session to be held in a country whose majority population is Islamic. This
provided an opportunity at a Colloquium sponsored by the WCC for dialogue
among members of the Islamic and Christian faith communities on how religion
can play an integral role in helping to address the threat of climate change.
This Colloquium was a witness of Muslims and Christians sharing ideas and
bread together.

Religions have a significant role to play in modern societies establishing a
language of the heart and of the spirit, which will surely have a great
influence on the climate change negotiations. We also hope to have the
language of the heart and of the spirit used as an alternative to war. This
is a time when it is particularly important to build bridges for dialogue
between cultures and religions.

We heard and continue to hear a strong support from COP7 delegates for such
inter-faith dialogue in the current global context.

We learn that from the Islamic point of view, protecting the environment and
avoiding climate change that damages life, requires:

  a.. Deepening awareness of the elements affecting life on our planet and
the laws established by God to preserve the continuity of the gift of life

  a.. Stopping the race of manufacturing and consumption that does not
respect either religion or spirituality

  a.. Strengthening faith and the religious and ethical background that act
on the behaviour of human beings, as all Holy Religions prohibit causing
damage or harm to others in any manner

From the Christian perspective, we learn that:

  a.. Humans are called to care for and keep this garden we call planet Earth

  a.. It is time to move to a conception addressing climate change as a
matter of ethical responsibility, as a matter of justice and as a matter or
love: love for our neighbour, love for nature, love for our environment

  a.. We are living a time when ethics, justice and love need to become
world-wide, not only for us but also for the generations to come

Equity and justice are as well main themes to be taken into account in the
international negotiations on climate change. Justice and equity in the
access to the Earth's resources. Justice and equity in the global effort to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Justice and equity as the basal stones in
the search of alternative models for sustainable communities.

The rediscovery of Indigenous Peoples' knowledge is another significant
source of wisdom for today's problems. Their wisdom and respect for nature
long pre-date the ecological message we know today.

The WCC is supportive of the Indigenous Peoples communities' desire to attain
special status as a "Working Group on Indigenous Peoples" within the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the present times, religions can bring and share the so much needed
message of Hope. Faiths must help the global society to appreciate the wonder
and the sacredness of life. We can make the world a hospitable place to live
for all, by avoiding the social injustices of the impacts of climate change.

In summary we declare that there is an important and shared role for all
faith communities in protecting the Earth's atmosphere, in preserving nature,
and above all in maintaining life in all its forms, as life is the profoundly
sacred treasure that was given to us as a gift.

Members of the World Council of Churches delegation to COP7:

Lic. Elias C. ABRAMIDES - Argentina

Ms. Nafisa GOGA D'SOUZA - India

Dr. David G. HALLMAN - Canada

Ms. Mirjam SCHUBERT - Germany (WCC journalist)

Ms. Marijke VAN DUIN - The Netherlands

Dr. David G. Hallman,
Climate Change Programme Coordinator,
World Council of Churches
and
Energy & Environment Programme Officer,
United Church of Canada,
3250 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Canada M8X 2Y4
Tel. 1-416-231-5931
Voice mail: 1-416-231-7680 ext.5051
Fax. 1-416-231-3103
E-mail: dhallman@uccan.org
Alternate e-mail: dhallman@sympatico.ca

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