CONFERENCE DECLARATION
CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS – AN NGO FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION

United Nations, NY 2007

DECLARATION PROCESS

CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS – AN NGO FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION

The Preparatory Committee of the 60th NGO/DPI Conference (September 5-7, 2007) invites all participants to concur by consensus on September 7th with the Declaration on the reverse of this sheet.

Substantive suggestions for improvement are also invited; but they must be received by 6pm on September 6th and should foster a consensus. Recommendation forms should be placed into the boxes in Conference Rooms 1 and 4, or given to the Drafting Committee members, Mr. Larry Roeder, Dr. William Gellermann and Ms. Moki Kokoris, who will often be in the UN Cafeteria near the windows overlooking the East River. Recommended suggestions MUST BE 25 words or less.

The Drafting Committee’s work is supervised by a Senior Review Committee made up of Sister Joan Kirby (outgoing Chairperson of the NGO/DPI Executive Committee), Jeffery Huffines (incoming Chair of the NGO/DPI Executive Committee), and Richard Jordan (Chair of the 60th NGO/DPI Conference)

Members of the NGO/DPI and ECOSOC NGO communities deal with a spectrum of issues that might not normally involve collaboration; but networking will be crucial to dealing with Climate Change, especially as it challenges all of us. The purpose of the Declaration is to provide a framework for action and collaborative networking, a tool to enable us to work together on the threats of climate change, which is essential to serving all of our particular mandates.

The Declaration envisages that over the next 12 months, we will collaborate and report our efforts to the Secretary-General, while continuing our collaboration in coping with the threats. The process by which this is to be done will be facilitated by the NGO/DPI Executive Committee. The recommendations that come out of the process do not need to have full consensus support across the entire NGO community; but they do need to be developed in the spirit of collaboration with and among all NGOs.



CONFERENCE DECLARATION
CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS – AN NGO FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION
1. We, over 2500 participants representing over 500 Non-Governmental Organizations from more than 80 countries,
having met at the 60th Annual UN Department of Public Information Conference for NGOs at UN Headquarters from 5-7 September, 2007, with representatives of Member States, UN agencies and programmes, the scientific community, the private sector, media and civil society, and
having reviewed the latest scientific evidence from a wide variety of experts to better understand climate change, its threats and how NGOs can broaden the base for knowledge and action to ameliorate those threats;
make the following Declaration.

2. We affirm that climate change is potentially the most serious threat humanity and our environment have ever faced, possibly causing:
catastrophic effects on our Earth’s eco-system and biodiversity;
significantly reduced availability of food, water, energy and transport;
massive migration of populations;
significant damage to our economic, political, cultural and social bases and
increased domestic and international violence.

3. To tackle these threats before they become irreversible, we commit ourselves over the next 12 months to:
unify behind a common vision of collaboration through a Framework for Action to develop and implement plans for adaptation and mitigation;
act as vocal, active partners for change with the UN, its Member States, NGOs and other members of our global community;
develop and implement individual and collective action plans.

We commend Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s leadership in highlighting climate change as a major priority. We urge government and UN leaders to emphasize proactive climate change priorities for the greater good in preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, December, 2007 and to partner with the NGO community.

For the sake of future generations, we urge government leaders, the UN and the whole of civil society to partner behind concrete solutions and to effectively implement them.
To that end – recognizing that our views on the challenges and opportunities needing response will evolve as this process continues – we recommend that:

the NGO/DPI Executive Committee and the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) collaborate to foster an implementation tool for the NGO community by facilitating the creation of an open, practical and transparent collaborative approach based on networking;

this process bridge the spectrum of issues of concern to the entire NGO community such as agriculture, indigenous peoples, biodiversity, livestock, nuclear proliferation, ethnic groups, multigenerational issues, poverty, food security, peacemaking, mental and physical health and sustainable development – thus networking NGOs that otherwise might not typically collaborate;
a progress report be submitted to the Secretary-General in one year and that a long-term conversation be fostered.