3 February 2012 | Linton Nightingale
Climate Change, South America

 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s Climate Commissioner, has called on countries scheduled to attend Rio+20 to double its usage of renewable energy by 2030 and provide citizens with adequate access to sustainable power.

Speaking to reporters in Dehi, Hedegaard also stated the need for the world to double its energy efficiency. “If we could have these targets accepted by the whole world in Rio, then we could make a substantial step forward,” Hedegaard said at a conference in New Delhi today.

Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, will be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in June this year, with world leaders gathering to discuss means in which to mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions.

News leading up to the summit has been dominated by growing concerns that India and China are likely to rebuff any attempt by so-called richer nations to make any commitments agreed in Rio globally enforced. Jayanthi Natarajan, India’s Environment Minister, said today that India will do all it can to ensure that richer and higher emitting countries of the past shoulder a larger burden so as to ensure poorer nations are not left with unrealistic and unachievable targets of their own emissions.

“Whether it’s climate change, whether it’s Rio+20, whether its biodiversity, at the bottom line there should be equity,” Natarajan told reporters in New Delhi. Adding that it means “common but differentiated responsibilities, and that there should be an equity in all the decisions we make.”

Earth summit, the first conference held in Rio in 1992, brought together 108 world leaders and saw the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which then and ever since has acted as the global body responsible for the stabilization and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Image 01: Hector Garcia | Flickr

Image 02: Climate Action Stock Photos

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