Speaking from New York on the occasion of the launch of the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (9 May 2011), UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres made the following media statement:
"This IPCC report is most significant because it underscores the irreplaceable potential of renewable energies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the lives of people around the world. In Cancun, at the end of last year, governments agreed to limit the global average
temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius at the most. They must reach their goal by making use of renewable energy sources on a very large scale. It is also clear that ambitious national policies and strong internationalcooperation are together the key to the swift and extensive deployment of renewable energies in all countries. In developing countries, which will have the largest energy generation growth, that deployment depends in large measure on appropriate finance and technology being available. In Cancun, governments agreed on new institutions to channel both funding and technology, and governments now need to make speedy progress on those new institutions. On their side, industrialized nations need to create the right policy conditions and incentives so that the development and installation of clean energy technologies also receive a major boost in their own energy mixes."
About the UNFCCC
With 195 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 193 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
