United Nations Radio

The Alliance of Small Island States has called on the Group of 8 countries to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions by more concrete and ambitious targets than they've agreed to.

The alliance known as AOSIS says while it welcomes recent statements on climate change from the G8 and the major economies at their meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, the 2 degrees Celsius temperature limit to the rise in global temperature agreed by the G8 is not acceptable.

The Chairperson of AOSIS, Ambassador Dessima Williams of Grenada told reporters on Friday that this level exceeds safe thresholds necessary for the protection of small island states and the planet.

Dessima Williams

"For the smallest and the most vulnerable states within the United Nations climate change is already here and, in fact, it is delivering damage to us. The world has an obligation to ensure that no island is left behind. It is a cruel irony that without adequate global commitments, the countries contributing least to global warming will be the ones most affected by its consequences."

Ambassador Williams said the major economies have also not come up with an exact target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

She recalled that AOSIS has consistently called for an overall reduction of at least 85 per cent in global emissions by 2050 based on 1990 levels.

Diane Bailey, United Nations

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