Wednesday 9 December 2009

COPENHAGEN: Leak of 'Danish text' causes outrage (12/08/2009)

A leaked negotiating text between wealthy nations at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen has drawn outrage from developing nations, who say that the draft would set unequal limits for 2050 carbon dioxide emissions and undermine the U.N.'s future role in climate negotiations.

The text -- believed to be drafted by American, British and Danish leaders -- would hand effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; discard any continuation of the Kyoto Protocol; and make climate adaptation aid contingent on nations taking a range of actions, among other areas.

Developing countries were furious that the text was being developed in secret, outside of the formal U.N. negotiating channels.

"It is being done in secret," said one diplomat, who asked for anonymity. "Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the U.N. process."

While it is only a draft, it shows the challenges small countries face in the treaty process, said Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International.

"It highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurting," he said. "On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40 percent cuts that science is saying is needed" (John Vidal, London Guardian, Dec. 8). -- PV

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