Climate Change Conference Underway

First Minister Alex Salmond and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, are sending a joint message to the UNFCCC meeting in Durban, South Africa, calling for climate justice to be reflected in the outcome of the talks.

The joint intervention comes after the FM raising the issue of climate justice with the Chinese Government in a speech to the Central Party School in Beijing earlier this week.

Mr Salmond said: "Worldwide, we are seeing more and more extreme weather events. We are all affected, but developing countries are being hit hardest, and especially the least developed countries and the poorest communities within those countries. Yet they have done least to cause the problem - with very low levels of carbon emissions - and these same countries and communities are least equipped to tackle the problem.


"Climate justice is the answer - linking human rights and development, putting people at the heart of our economic system and allowing all to share the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution, and to do so in an equitable and fair way.

"That is why I am delighted to join Mary Robinson to call that the outcome of these talks witnesses a collective global raising of ambition on both climate change mitigation and climate justice."

Speaking at COP17 today, Ms Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice (MRFCJ) said: "We need urgency from this COP. This is not a trade discussion, we cannot wait until the next meeting to take action. 2020 is too late to put a legally binding agreement in place.

"Having a legal framework with clear and common rules to which all countries are committed is critically important. It is the only assurance we have that action will be taken to protect the most vulnerable. This COP must agree to initiate negotiations towards this end - with a view to concluding a new legal instrument by 2015 at the latest.

"As the Durban talks draw to a close, I join with the First Minister of Scotland to call on delegates at COP17 to keep climate justice high on their agenda. I welcome the First Minister raising the issue of climate justice during his current visit to China and I am especially pleased to note his comments highlighting the gender dimension of climate change.

"Climate change is a matter of justice. The richest countries caused the problem, but it is the world's poorest who are already suffering from its effects. The international community must commit to righting that wrong."

(GK)