What is KyotoPlus
KyotoPlus - Escaping the Climate Trap is a project launched by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cooperation with WWF, Wuppertal Institute and the European Climate Forum.
The initiative recognizes the Kyoto Protocol from 1997 as a necessary first step. But further, decisive action is needed. Under KyotoPlus, we mean both additional initiatives and efforts complementing the Kyoto process, as well as the discussions on a follow-up regime.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed in 1992 and the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) took place 1995 in Berlin. Now, about ten years after, it is about time to take stock of what can be learned from humankind’s first steps on the long way to combat and mitigate anthropogenic climate change.
It is time to re-remind the international community that the climate risks is real and that urgent action is needed to prevent severe interference with the climate systems. KyotoPlus is a process of inquiry and open debate designed for this purpose.
KyotoPlus does recognize the Kyoto protocol as an effort to minimize the risks resulting from climate change. Nevertheless the Kyoto protocol only marks the first steps on the long way towards tackling climate change - a major challenge for humankind as a whole.
With KyotoPlus we wish to organize a controversial debate about the future of climate policy and are providing a forum for the necessary stocktaking exercise(s): Where do we stand? And where do we go from here? Presently, there is a need and an opportunity for a debate about climate policy that does not focus on the technicalities of emissions trading and technology assessment, but on steps that can re-orient public imagination by focusing on what can be done today to foster far-reaching changes in the mechanisms causing global climate risks.
KyotoPlus will therefore be a marketplace of new ideas, initiatives, and strategies. KyotoPlus will bring together the expertise from all kinds of stakeholders: from science, business, civil society, governments and parliaments.
KyotoPlus wants to be innovative and solution-oriented. KyotoPlus will look into new technologies, new initiatives from finance, business, regional governments and local communities, new policies and economic instruments, new diplomatic and legal approaches. The climate policy arena has mobilized public attention and interest groups to allow for first steps towards actually solving the climate problem. Although these steps are modest in comparison with the ultimate objective of avoiding major climate risks, they are sufficient to show that this objective is not beyond the reach of feasible policies.