With the Climate Conference in Bali having come to a successful conclusion,  Sean Heron interviewed Christoph Bals from the German NGO Germanwatch on his opinion of the outcome, and an outlook on the future negotiations. Christoph is the Senior Political Executive of Germanwatch, Co-Author of the Climate protection-Index and did lobby work on Bali. WN: What needs to happen in this period of time in your opinion? What do the agreements that are hopefully to be reached need to look like? CB: The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, so that a warming of more than 2°C (35.6 F) is averted, is central. The global average temperatures mustn't rise above 2°C in comparison with pre-industrial levels. We call this the aversion of the uncopeable, as the risks of such a warming would be simply too great. To achieve this goal a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 50-85\% by 2050 is necessary. For the middle term this means that the peak of global emissions needs to be reached in 10-15 years and that the output is cut considerably year after year from then onwards. The group of industrialized nations have to reduce their emissions by 25-40\% till 2020 (compared to 1990 baselines) on average to make this possible. Regarding adaptation, what we call coping with the inadvertable, the scale of funding is going to have to change. Roughly  50 billion Dollar a year are going to be required. WN: Does that mean the demand for a climate compatible life style? CB: It's not about one climate compatible life style. It's more of a case of a climate compatible variant needing to be developed for each of the different life styles that exist in our society. The people in our society don't need to become uniform. Some will focus on protecting the climate through technical innovations and will bring their house up to the most recent level of efficiency, and massively use renewable energies. Others will see an increase in wealth in not having a car, instead buying a "Bahncard 100" [This is a flat rate for a years rail travel in Germany, at a cost of 3500 Euro, ed.] which also lets you take your kids along for free, and focus on a slower more concious life. We don't need to prescribe one life style, what is necessary is to advance every life style variant in a climate compatible way
With the Climate Conference in Bali having come to a successful conclusion, Wikinews journalist Sean Heron interviewed Christoph Bals from the German NGO Germanwatch on his opinion of the outcome, and an outlook on the future negotiations. Christoph is the Senior Political Executive of Germanwatch, Co-Author of the Climate protection-Index and did lobby work on Bali. WN: What needs to happen in this period of time in your opinion? What do the agreements that are hopefully to be reached need to look like? CB: The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, so that a warming of more than 2°C (35.6 F) is averted, is central. The global average temperatures mustn't rise above 2°C in comparison with pre-industrial levels. We call this the aversion of the uncopeable, as the risks of such a warming would be simply too great. To achieve this goal a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 50-85\% by 2050 is necessary. For the middle term this means that the peak of global emissions needs to be reached in 10-15 years and that the output is cut considerably year after year from then onwards. The group of industrialized nations have to reduce their emissions by 25-40\% till 2020 (compared to 1990 baselines) on average to make this possible. Regarding adaptation, what we call coping with the inadvertable, the scale of funding is going to have to change. Roughly US 50 billion a year are going to be required. WN: Does that mean the demand for a climate compatible life style? CB: It's not about one climate compatible life style. It's more of a case of a climate compatible variant needing to be developed for each of the different life styles that exist in our society. The people in our society don't need to become uniform. Some will focus on protecting the climate through technical innovations and will bring their house up to the most recent level of efficiency, and massively use renewable energies. Others will see an increase in wealth in not having a car, instead buying a "Bahncard 100" [This is a flat rate for a years rail travel in Germany, at a cost of 3500 Euro, ed.] which also lets you take your kids along for free, and focus on a slower more conscious life. We don't need to prescribe one life style, what is necessary is to advance every life style variant in a climate compatible way
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Wikinews journalist
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conscious