April, 08 2009, 10:47am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
In the US: Mike Crocker, Media Officer, Greenpeace USA, + 1
202-215-8989 cell; Carroll Muffett, Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns
Director, + 1 202 425 2934
In Bonn: Cindy Baxter, Greenpeace International - Local: +49 170 195
5833 OR +31 646 197 332; Stephanie Tunmore, Greenpeace International,
+44 7796 947 451
As Bonn Negotiations Conclude, U.S. Climate Leadership Still Missing
Reaction from Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns Director Carroll Muffett
WASHINGTON
"The diplomats and negotiators in Bonn have been
treading water for two weeks, while back in the real world ice caps
have continued to melt at alarming rates and flash floods have
devastated parts of Australia," said Carroll Muffett, Greenpeace USA
deputy campaigns director. "As it stands, this exact same meeting will
be repeated in June. Heads of State must now inject leadership and
direction into the talks in order to avert catastrophic climate
change."
The Obama administration was
represented in the climate negotiations for the first time in Bonn and
the positive reengagement of the United States lifted the atmosphere,
but unfortunately little or no formal progress was made on key issues
and decisions.
"With the United States back on board, the atmosphere of the talks has
clearly improved. Nevertheless, industrialized countries failed to
agree on targets for reducing greenhouse gases, or the level of support
needed to help poor countries already suffering severe climate
impacts," Muffett said. "The meeting also failed to establish
commitments to provide the resources needed to prevent tropical
deforestation, a key part of solving the climate crisis."
He said the United States must come back to the process with solid
proposals in June and the rest of the industrialized world must knuckle
down and close the gap between what is on the table and what is needed.
Greenpeace is calling on developed countries to agree to an aggregate
emissions reduction target of 40 percent by 2020 and provide $140
billion annually to assist the developing world tackle climate change.
"We are on the brink of runaway climate change," Muffett said. "World
leaders need to realize that they can't change what the science
demands; they must urgently intervene and change the politics.
Greenpeace will be working on behalf of the billions of people who will
suffer to make sure that happens."
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
+31 20 718 2000LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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