SIMONE LOVERA
Based in Paraguay, Lovera is co-founder of the Global Forest Coalition. She said today: “The U.S. per capita carbon dioxide emissions are so much higher than China’s emissions. In 2005, the U.S. was nearly 23.5 while China is 5.5 [tons of CO2 per person per year]. It’s inappropriate for the U.S. to be demanding that China reduce emissions unless you somehow argue that the U.S. has a right to pollute the rest of the planet and China doesn’t. China actually showed real leadership in the voluntary commitments it made at the UN General Assembly meeting in September. I understand Obama has to deal with the U.S. Senate, but U.S. officials are actually obstructing progress at the international climate negotiations. The Europeans have agreed to a 20 percent reduction — the Scottish [government] agreed to 40 percent. The U.S. government is stopping these from being binding commitments. Meanwhile, studies are finding that 300,000 people are dying because of climate disruption; countries in the Pacific are on course to be under water.”

Lovera will be at the Copenhagen summit on climate change from December 5 to 19.

See: “Global Warming Causes 300,000 Deaths a Year, Says Kofi Annan think tank: Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe”

Lovera is also reachable via Hallie Boas.

Boas is coordinator of New Voices on Climate Change for the Global Justice Ecology Project and can connect media to individuals and groups working on global warming around the world.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167