[NYTr] Climate Change: Bush Regime at Odds with the World

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

MADRE, An International Women's Human Rights Organization  
http://www.madre.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Sep 27, 2007

Contact: Diana Duarte, Media Coordinator
(212) 627-0444; email: media at madre.org


Bush Agenda on Climate Change at Odds with International Push

New York--While dozens of heads of state convened at the United Nations
(UN) in New York this week for a forum to address the threat of climate
change and the need for a global reduction in emissions, President Bush
did not attend these discussions.  Instead, today the US will begin a
two-day parallel conference, setting forth the Bush administration's
approach in a meeting of sixteen nations. MADRE, an international
women's human rights organization, today highlighted the need for
worldwide partnership to tackle climate change and condemned President
Bush's lack of engagement.

Political mobilization at the UN has intensified, in preparation for a
climate conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia in December.  This
gathering is set to forge commitments for reducing the emission of
greenhouse gases to pre-1990 levels.  While the Kyoto Protocol expires
in 2012, the US has refused to sign on and continues to oppose
international limits on emissions, citing a risk to the US economy.

Vivian Stromberg, Executive Director of MADRE, said today, "In a time
when the focus of governments around the world must be on working
together to counter the dangers of climate change, Bush has, time and
again, chosen unilateralism over cooperation.   Meanwhile, reports from
the UN warn that soaring temperatures are likely to lead to rising seas
and droughts.  These dramatic changes threaten the lives of millions of
people across the planet, and women -- who are responsible for food
production and maintaining natural resources in much of the
world -- will bear the brunt.  This is the time for urgent action to
halt this trend and for the Bush administration and the US Congress to
require US industries to curb emissions."

President Bush's proposals center on allowing industries to regulate
themselves and on promoting "clean" energy, including "biofuels."
However, MADRE cautions that the promises of these "biofuels" are a
false remedy and are more likely to perpetuate the injustices of land
rights violations against Indigenous and local people, increase global
hunger and destroy biodiversity.  More information can be found in the
MADRE statement "Feed People, Not Cars: Agrofuels are no Solution to
Climate Change," located here:
http://madre.org/articles/int/agrofuels.html. 

MADRE emphasizes that the damages of climate change will be felt most
severely among those least at fault and at the greatest risk.  The
organization further stresses the centrality of Indigenous Peoples,
particularly women, in this discussion, whose input is often ignored by
governments but whose knowledge is essential to preserve local
biodiversity and food security.

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MADRE is an international women's human rights organization that works
in partnership with community-based women's organizations worldwide to
address issues of health and reproductive rights, economic development,
education, and other human rights. MADRE provides resources, training,
and support to enable our sister organizations to meet concrete needs
in their communities while working to shift the balance of power to
promote long-term development and social justice. Since we began in
1983, MADRE has delivered over 22 million dollars worth of support to
community-based women's organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean,
the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and the United States.