COP18 (26/11/12) – Tasneem Essop, Head of COP18 Delegation for WWF says she wants to see two things from Doha; urgency and ambition. She says this year’s extreme weather events are a clear warning sign of climate change’s impacts.

With these events, combined with the reports released in the last month by the World Bank, the International Energy Agency and the UN Environment Programme, Essop says she would expect to see politicians sit up and realise the huge responsibility they have and to respond with urgency. But she says levels of ambition are still low.

She talks about the need to rebuild the trust lost between developed and developing countries and says all countries have to do their fair share to tackle climate change. She adds that many of the larger developing countries could and should up their ambition levels, and move their economies on to a path that is less carbon intensive.

She calls for three main outcomes from Doha; a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to be finalised, for those countries not included in the agreement to also set ambitious reduction targets and for parties to figure out how to fill the Green Climate Fund.

Essop says all the solutions to climate change exist, but what is currently lacking is the political will.