10 July 2009: In a press conference held at UN Headquarters in New York, US, Dessima Williams, Permanent Representative of Grenada and Chairperson of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), welcomed the statements on climate change made by the leaders of the G8 industrialized economies and the 17 participants in the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, who met in L’Aquila, Italy, noting they signal their growing and positive engagement with the on-going negotiations.In response to their agreement to limit temperature rises to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, she reiterated AOSIS’ call for more ambitious short- and medium-term targets that would limit increases to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. She underscored the vulnerability of small islands to climate change and stressed that they had contributed the least to the phenomenon. She underlined the need for targets to be specific, measurable, quantifiable and defined by reference to the 1990 emissions baseline, and referred to UN Secretary-General’s statement urging every Head of State or government to do more to address climate change. Crispin Gregoire, Permanent Representative of Dominica, welcomed the US’s active involvement in the climate change process and hoped for their leadership role. [UN press release]