Frustration at lack of progress in negotiations at the UN climate summit led to an outbreak of megaphone diplomacy yesterday with 134 developing countries issuing a statement demanding that rich countries provide more finance for them to adapt to rising temperatures and sea levels, reports UNB.
The statement accused them of trying to amend the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change so that the more wealthy developing countries such as China were also forced to help the poorest nations adapt to climate change.
The statement said the richer countries were trying to avoid their responsibility for causing global warming in the first place, according to a message received from Climate News Network.
The dramatic release of a strongly-worded statement before the two weeks of negotiations had reached the halfway stage showed that the success of the talks is in jeopardy.
Normally, all these tensions are dealt with behind the closed doors, so delegates from the European Union and the US were clearly shocked by the development.
They spent several hours discussing how best to respond to avoid a breakdown, but a statement from the rich nations was still awaited as the day’s proceedings drew to a close.
Part of the statement issued by South African delegate Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, on behalf of the G77 group of 134 developing countries and China, said: “Under the Convention, developed countries are obliged to provide financial resources, including technology transfer and capacity building, to all developing countries.
“This is a legal obligation under the Convention. It is neither ‘aid’ nor ‘charity’, nor is it the same as development assistance.”
Finance support from developed countries relates to the impacts of historical emissions, which will only get worse with time for developing countries.
The Group is therefore concerned about the introduction of new language, which has no basis in the Convention.
Bubu Jallow, a delegate from The Gambia representing the world’s 48 poorest countries, said the statement was issued publicly because of the “frustration” at the lack of progress in the talks.
He stressed that it did not mean that richer developing countries would not spend their money helping poorer ones. He believed that China was already doing more than the US to help countries in West Africa by providing solar panels and other infrastructure.
At stake is the $100 billion dollars of annual climate change aid promised to developing countries by 2020. At present, $64 billion has been pledged, according to rich donors.
But Jallow was scathing about whether this was “real money”. He asked: “Is it new money, or money diverted from other aid budgets and suddenly labelled climate funds? Is it grants, soft loans or loans at commercial rates? There is no audit, no verification. We do not accept it is real because we have not seen any of it.”
He said the statement was released “as a shot across the bow” to alert the rich countries that the talks were heading for failure unless they “get real” about this issue.