Newswise — Cornell University is sending three faculty presenters to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. This 16th Conference of Parties follows one year after the highly charged climate conference in Copenhagen failed to produce a binding international accord.
NOTE TO MEDIA: All three Cornell faculty presenters will be available throughout the Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 climate conference for interviews with journalists. Professor Antonio Bento welcomes interviews in Portuguese, Spanish and English. Professor Johannes Lehman also welcomes interviews in German.
-- Johannes Lehmann, associate professor of crop and soil sciences and a COP 16 presenter on sustainable agriculture and carbon management, comments on the urgent need for action:
“We can not afford another failure. The scientific evidence clearly indicates that climate change is a reality we have to deal with ¬– now.
“The science is in place to provide opportunities to address global warming. Technological and scientific progress is severely crippled if no international and national agreements are in place to set targets and provide a mechanism to achieve those targets.
“COP16 is one of the very few conferences where scientists can be relevant in directly informing policy decisions at a high level.”
-- Sean Sweeney, director of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a presenter on the role of labor unions in promoting climate protection, comments on the United State’s critical leadership role:
“There will probably be progress around important issues, but the big question surrounds the U.N. climate process itself. Will it survive?
“The Obama administration has openly expressed doubts that the U.N. can produce an agreement next year in Johannesburg – but this says more about the U.S. failure to make a national emissions reductions commitment than it does about the U.N. process. The U.S. could have made the difference in Copenhagen, and it can do again in Cancun and South Africa. But it needs to come clean about the problems in passing a bill in Congress and the interests that stand in the way of U.S. climate policy.
“Consensus is unlikely, but a ‘coalition of the willing’ could emerge. Many hope the U.S. can get on the right side of history in this respect.”
-- Antonio Bento, an associate professor of Applied Economics and Management, also will present at COP 16 on the use of agricultural and forestry sectors to claim carbon offsets.
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