ISO standards highlighted at Bali conference as essential to voluntary and regulatory efforts to fight climate change.
Laying a pathway for 2012 beyond Kyoto was central to the meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Over a two-week period from 3-14 December 2007 in Bali, Indonesia, more than 12 000 participants from government, intergovernmental organisations, and international NGOs associated with business, academic, environmental and civil society interests converged in Bali to address a most pressing issue of our time – climate change.
The need to act for the sake of future generations has never been clearer, or more urgent. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has highlighted the unequivocal impact that mankind’s activities are having on the world’s climate in its Summary for Policymakers, a summary from its Fourth Assessment Report.
The findings indicate that the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from pre-industrial values of about 280 ppm, to 379 ppm in 2005. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in 2005 exceeds by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years (180 to 300 ppm).
The report predicts that continued greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century.
With a mandate to address these challenges, the Bali meetings convened the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, its subsidiary bodies as well as the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, the meetings included an extensive array of side events and exhibits that probed topical issues of importance to global climate change.
A central theme was the renewed importance of industry and governments to work towards common solutions and to ensure that voluntary initiatives align with the imperatives of government and society at large. ISO’s foundational contribution to such voluntary approaches was highlighted late in the first week by the ISO Deputy Secretary- General, Kevin McKinley, in a special side event session hosted by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The ISO process was promoted as an effective mechanism for developing international consensus amongst countries and stakeholders from civil society, business and other interests – ISO’s reach being achieved through its network of national standards institutes from 157 countries, as well as links with more than 600 international and regional organisations collaborating in its programme of more than 3000 committees and working groups.
