Should we trust in Durban results?

Please imagine:

Delegations of 194 countries would have come to Durban ready to implement an Integrated Management System for Climate Protection for our planet:
The first step = a sound Baseline Review for the whole planet and all ecological, social and economical aspects related to climate change has been realized.
Scientific Experts all over the world agree on the targets which need to be achieved by 2020 in order to have a minimum chance to avoid a global warming over 2 degrees.
A risk analysis has been done regarding what the consequences if temperature arises about 3,5 degrees - scenario which starts to be discussed now.

And the world´s political decision makers on highest level recognize the findings of the baseline report and use them to set the right priorities.

Instead of last minute negotiations and a "Pact with legal force" by 2015, a sound "Strategic Climate Programme" with concrete Action Plans would have been approved with measurable targets, clear responsibilities and time tables and allocated resources. Partnerships have been putted in place, because these inmense challanges can not be achieved by the governments only!

A Strategic Programme with the requiered political committment - that means approved by the UN and all 194 countries. Monitoring sturctures and procedures have been defined - neutral and trasparent - and with the compromise not to ignore monitoring results and to take correction actions if needed.

An appropiate organisational set up was established to assure the efficient functioning of the integrated climate management system and to set up the procedures and rules for stakeholder involvement.

Communication and involvement are considered as a priority in all stages of the elaboration and implementation of Climate Management - and citizens and stakeholders involved consider themselves well informed in order to be able to contribute actively and appropiatly to the tremendous objective.

Unfortunatly it seems that political leaders of many countries never heard about the integrated management approach for sustainable development. Steps agreed are too weak and too slow when climate change has become a rather urgent issue!

We urge political decision makers from national, regional and local governments to learn from the CHAMP Capacity Building Package and the take the guidance and experiences seriously!
We invite them to come to our IMS Training Courses! We recommend to contact the local and regional authorities participating in Managing Urban Europe and CHAMP and implementing integrated management system.

They can tell you, that it is not an easy task, that is requieres political will and continous support of political decision makers in all steps of the management process. But it is the only way to come to positive results.

Climate mitigation and adaptation requieres a structured and continious way. The global objectives can only be achieved on local level - therefore it is so important to support local and regional authorities which are taking these challanges seriously and are working towards solutions in a structured and continuos way.

At the same time, European and national political decision makers need to change the political framework in order to make IMS mainstream: IMS as a minimum requirement for all kind of financial support, Strategic Programmes and sound monitoring on local, regional and national level ... these are the steps which need to be taken.

No more time to loose!
Best wishes - Marion Hammerl, Lake Constance Foundation