The Minister for the Environment today warned there was no alternative to tackling climate change and called for a 30 per cent reduction in emissions.
Speaking in Poznan, Poland, to a high-level plenary session of the UN Climate Change Conference, Mr Gormley said science revealed there was a window of opportunity that is closing quickly.
“Climate change is happening, and we will all have to adapt to reduce its negative impacts, which will get worse over the coming years.
“We must scale up resources and increase our efforts to build adaptive capacity and increase resilience. Our adaptation actions must pay particular attention to the needs of the most vulnerable, helping them cope with the adverse impacts of climate change,” the Minister said.
“It is imperative that we achieve the ultimate objective of the [UN Framework Convention] Convention - we must avoid dangerous climate change. There is no alternative.”
Mr Gormley said the EU believes the worst impacts of climate change can be avoided if the global temperature increase is kept under two degrees above pre-industrial levels. He added there should be an aim of global carbon neutrality "some time early in the second half of this century".
“Europe has taken the first step towards a global climate agreement. The EU countries will, in my view, agree a set of unilateral legally binding emissions targets for 2020.”
Mr Gormley said: “These targets are realistic, achievable, and essential. Now, we must move forward towards a more ambitious 30 per cent reduction. The EU is ready. I call on all our developed country partners to join us and come forward with their proposals for emissions reductions.”
Host Poland is sticking to a proposal to agree a "Solidarity Partnership" at the end of UN climate talks today despite criticism by many nations that progress was too scant to merit a sweeping title.
The meeting, including 145 environment ministers, has been overshadowed by fears of economic recession and few nations have been willing to unveil ambitious new plans to combat global warming.
"The 'Poznan Solidarity Partnership' is a proposal for the final declaration of the conference, which would sum up all the achievements of this meeting," Poland's Deputy Environment Minister Janusz Zaleski said.
Many delegates said the 189-nation talks, reviewing progress towards a UN climate treaty due to be agreed at the end of 2009, had achieved too little on issues such as safeguarding forests or helping the poor to justify the title.
One Chinese delegate denounced the proposal in a meeting of ministers with Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki on Thursday night as "an empty bag of garbage," delegates said.
The United States and developing nations also criticised the plan.
