MEDIA RELEASE September 3, 2007.

Listen up APEC! – The poor need climate targets now.

Pope Benedict the XVI has called on all people of the world to protect the environment as 21 world leaders meet in Sydney this week.

Caritas Australia is calling on APEC leaders to commit to binding targets for CO2 emissions at this weeks APEC meeting in Australia.

“This APEC meeting is a huge opportunity for rich and poor countries to join together and commit to binding targets on CO2 emissions,” said Caritas Australia CEO Jack de Groot.

“Hundreds of millions of people in poor countries are already suffering the onset of climate change. As an international community we need to ensure we are protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring we act urgently and decisively on climate change.”

“We see people in Indonesia already suffering from increases in salinity due to rising sea levels. Coral reefs – traditional fishing grounds - are dying off threatening food security and rising sea levels are threatening the homes of the most vulnerable. The time for rhetoric is past we need a commitment on binding targets now.

“The APEC agenda is one of the few multinational forums where civil society organisations do not have an official role, hence we have taken the step of establishing an international NGO media centre in Sydney with other like minded groups to ensure we get our messages out there.

“Whilst the Prime Minister of Australia tries to marginalise any voice of dissent, we are here with alternatives that give voice to many hundreds of millions of people who cannot be here.

“We are disappointed that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not on the agenda like they have been at other similar fora such as the recent G8 Meetings.

Caritas Australia and the Caritas confederation, work in all 21 APEC countries, and a further 174 countries around the world, promoting the interests of the poorest of the poor.

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