COMMONWEALTH leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago have reached a crucial climate change consensus that has set foundations to reaching a strongest outcome in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.

Presenting the Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus on Saturday to the press, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon who was joined by host Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Danish Premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Commonwealth Secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma said what was now remaining was political leadership.

“I welcome the statement by leaders of the Commonwealth who have committed themselves to this crucial world effort,” Ban said. “In Copenhagen we will able to seal a deal that is ambitious, equitable, meets demands of science and with immediate operational effect.”

He said global leaders were united in purpose.
“But We are not united in action,” said Ban. “I will devote all energy and time to ensure we seal the deal in Copenhagen.”

The leaders said climate change was ‘the Challenge of our time’.
The Commonwealth leaders said climate change was the predominant global challenge.
“We convened a Special Session on Climate Change in Port of Spain to discuss our profound concern about the undisputed threat that climate change poses to the security, prosperity, economic and social development of our people,” reads the Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration. “For many it is deepening poverty and affecting the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. For some of us, it is an existential threat.”

They agreed to approach Copenhagen with ambition, optimism and determination. But leaders said the ambitious mitigation outcome of the Copenhagen summit must not compromise the legitimate development aspirations of developing countries.

“Many of us from small island states, low-lying coastal states and least developed countries face the greatest challenges, yet have contributed least to the problem of climate change,” reads the declaration. “We represent a third of the worldís population in all continents and oceans, and more than one quarter of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

We have the global reach and diversity to help forge the inclusive global solutions needed to combat climate change. Science, and our own experience, tells us that we only have a few short years to address this threat. The average global temperature has risen because of the increase in carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The latest scientific evidence indicates that in order to avoid dangerous climate change that is likely to have catastrophic impacts we must find solutions using all available avenues. We must act now.”

The leaders said they believed an internationally legally binding agreement was essential.
They pledged continued support to the leaders-driven process guided by the Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen and his efforts to deliver a comprehensive, substantial and operationally binding agreement in Copenhagen leading towards a full legally binding outcome no later than 2010.

The leaders said a global climate change solution was central to the survival of peoples, the promotion of development and facilitation of a global transition to a low emission development path.
“The agreement in Copenhagen must address the urgent needs of developing countries by providing financing, support for adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building, approaches and incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and for afforestation and sustainable management of forests,” affirmed the leaders.

Commonwealth’s industralised (developed) nations pledged to strive to significantly increase technological support to developing countries to facilitate the deployment and diffusion of clean technologies through a range of mechanisms.

“We will work to facilitate and enable the transition to low-emission economies, climate resilience, and in particular, support, including through capacity building, for increasing the climate resilience of vulnerable economies,” the association’s rich north assured its developing and vulnerable members. “We will also aim to develop cleaner, more affordable and renewable energy sources.

We must explore global mechanisms through which those identified technologies can be disseminated as rapidly as possible. In building towards an international agreement, all countries will need to play their part, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.”
Leaders said other than a multilateral finance approach, public and private financial resources for developing countries would need to be scaled up urgently and substantially by 2020.

“The provision of finance should be additional to existing official development assistance commitments,” the Commonwealth heads stressed. “We welcomed the initiative to establish, as part of a comprehensive agreement, a Copenhagen Launch Fund starting in 2010 and building to a level of resources of $10 billion annually by 2012. Fast start funding for adaptation should be focused on the most vulnerable countries. We also welcomed a proposal to provide immediate, fast disbursing assistance with a dedicated stream for small island states, and associated low-lying coastal states of at least 10 per cent of the fund.

We agree that an equitable governance structure to manage the financial and technological support must be put in place. We agree that a future governance structure should provide for states to monitor and comply with arrangements entered under a new Copenhagen agreement.”

Prime Minister Rudd said the document was substantive and that the Commonwealth had thrown its weight behind Prime Minister Rasmussen’s efforts.
He said the Commonwealth spoke with a single voice telling the world that time for climate change had come.

Prime Minister Rasmussen said he was impressed with Commonwealth leaders’ statement.

Sharma said everyone had the right to be safe under the sun.
“I feel that the good offices of the UN secretary-general should now be used as good offices of saving the planet itself,” said Sharma.

Prime Minister Manning, credited for consensus having invited Ban and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the session, said the Commonwealth had always recognised the potential opportunity the CHOGM had to add value to the Copenhagen summit.