THE UN climate talks had to be suspended for a time yesterday after the South Pacific island of Tuvalu, one of the smallest and most vulnerable nations in the world, threatened to walk out, amid rancour over the terms of a draft deal circulated by Denmark.
First revealed by The Irish Timeson December 1st, the "Danish text" (as it has become known) was drafted by a small group that formed a "circle of commitment", and became more widely known after it was posted on the Guardian's website on Tuesday evening. Although embracing the goal of limiting the average rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius, the draft detailed no emission reduction pledges by developed countries but specified that emissions from developing countries would have to peak soon.
Reaction was furious, with the G77 developing countries saying the text “destroys” both the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol by equating the responsibilities of rich and poor nations to deal with global warming. The Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance staged a noisy protest at the Bella convention centre, claiming that the draft would impose an unfair burden on poorer countries and that $10 billion dollars a year in aid was “not enough to buy the coffins that you bury us with”.
G77 chairman, Sudanese ambassador Stanislaus Lumumba, reiterated yesterday that even a limit of two degrees would “turn Africa into a furnace”, because the UN’s scientists had warned in 2007 that all parts of the continent would experience higher temperatures.
He said any successful deal would have to be “fair and balanced”, suggesting that G77 would produce its own “perspective” on what it should contain. He also advised against suspending the negotiations, saying these should continue until the last minute.
“We will not walk out of the talks at this late hour, because we will not allow the failure of Copenhagen. But we will not sign an inequitable deal; we will not accept a deal that condemns 80 per cent of the world’s population to further suffering and injustice.”
Mr Lumumba said it was up to the conference president, Danish climate and energy minister Connie Hedegaard – who insisted that the draft “does not exist” – to concentrate on her role of “helping and facilitating all parties in an open and transparent way”.
Molly Walsh, of Friends of the Earth Ireland, said that by “discussing their text in secret back-room meetings with a few select countries, the Danes are doing the opposite of what the world expects the host country to do . . . colluding with other rich nations.”
Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: “This is only a draft, but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurt.
“Like ants in a room full of elephants, poor countries are at risk of being squeezed out.”
But Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, who flew in yesterday, “categorically” rejected any idea that rich countries such as his own owed any “reparations” to poorer ones for having unwittingly put so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Although pledging that the US would provide aid to developing countries, he said major economies such as China and India could not be given a “pass” on their carbon emissions – given that China’s emissions alone were likely to increase by 50 per cent.
“We can’t even think about controlling this problem without China being a major player,” he said. And while there were “a lot of good proposals out there” (to limit the growth in emissions), they would all need to be “wrapped up” in an international agreement.
UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer said Tuvalu’s protest had only led to the talks being “suspended for lunch”.
He also disowned the “Danish text”, saying it was one of several that had been circulated informally in advance of the conference.
“This was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations,” he said.
“The only formal texts in the UN process are the ones tabled by the chairs of this Copenhagen conference at the behest of the parties.”