Online Campaign Launched to Keep Warming Below 1.5°C

(PIA) — A new online campaign was launched in Bonn, Germany to gather more support to the global call to keep warming below 1.5°C.

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) where Philippines sits as the president, and CARE International have launched the campaign #1o5C / www.1o5C.org during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations held in Bonn.

“We need to limit warming to a strict minimum to safeguard communities and the world. Less than 1°C of warming has already triggered scores of dangerous and unmanageable impacts. Raising ambition is a question of survival. It’s also feasible and an opportunity for communities to thrive. We hope this campaign will help to convince other countries to call for a sensible decision on the temperature goal at the Paris climate change conference, ” Climate Change Commissioner of the Philippines Emmanuel de Guzman stated in the recent release of the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

To add to this, Mr. Pascal Girot of the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica stated that “countries are supporting the 1.5°C goal because climate change has already proved dangerous and in some cases unmanageable. Costa Rica has also committed to truly ambitious climate action, including a rapid transition to carbon neutrality because we believe in the benefits this will bring for people, the environment and the economy. We see 1.5°C as an opportunity to work together towards enhanced global prosperity and we’re encouraging others to join us.”

CARE International’s Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator Sven Harmeling stated that “it is crucial that the 1.5°C goal, and the means to make it happen, are part of the new UN climate agreement due to be signed in Paris. We must come together to rally all countries to support this goal. CARE International is already seeing how the poorest and most vulnerable communities are being hit the hardest by increasingly severe climate change impacts.”

“It’s significant that 103 nations and hundreds of civil society groups already support the ambitious 1.5°C temperature goal, because numbers do matter in the UN climate talks. Paris provides a rare opportunity to increase our collective ambition to combat climate change including by strengthening the 2°C goal that the vulnerable countries rightly view as totally inadequate. And support for 1.5°C is steadily growing – this campaign will only add to that momentum,” Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development and Chair, Advisory Group of the Climate Vulnerable Forum stated.

The UNFCCC is the last preparatory meeting before the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 UN climate change conference in Paris this December. (CCC/RJB/MAPA/PIA-NCR)