Bangkok climate talks end in recrimination

While we can’t read the minds of our great world leaders and acknowledge that climate change is a serious and complicated global challenge, we would hope that said leaders would approach the negotiation table in the spirit of collaboration. Bitter delegates emerged from the latest Bangkok Climate Talks with no agreement on issues of money or emissions cuts. Rifts between developing nations and the US and EU on the climate change have become wider signalling little hope of a broader agreement at the Copenhagen Summit.

It’s time to put national interests aside and global interests first.

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Bangkok climate talks end in recrimination
Mail & Guardian Online

Global climate change talks came to an end in Bangkok on Saturday in an atmosphere of distrust and recrimination, with the rift between rich and poor countries seemingly wider than ever. After two weeks of negotiations there have been no breakthroughs on big issues such as money or emissions cuts.

With just five days of negotiating time now left before the concluding talks in Copenhagen in December, delegates said it appeared a weak deal was the most likely outcome, and no deal at all was a possibility.

However, United States President Barack Obama’s expected visit to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in the middle of the climate talks raised hopes that he would make the short journey to Copenhagen to galvanise governments.

“World leadership is now vital if the talks are not to fail completely. It is inconceivable that Obama could now ignore the climate change talks,” said one diplomat.

The citation for the prize specifically mentions the president “now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting”.

However, China, India, Brazil and other major developing countries lined up with environment and development groups to condemn both the US and European Union for demanding a brand-new climate agreement.

This would bring the US aboard an agreement but in the eyes of most countries would mean the effective end of the Kyoto protocol and possibly allow countries to set their own targets and timetables for cuts.

“It’s irresponsible to even contemplate the idea of discarding the Kyoto protocol. It’s the lifeblood of any future agreement. It is the only legally binding agreement that gives the certainty of moving rapidly to addressing the climate concerns of billions of people,” said said Di-Aping Lumumba, Sudanese chair of the G77, a group of 130 developing countries.

“Developed countries have a massive leadership deficit. It’s now up to their leaders to intervene and give a direction to the negotiations rather than waste everyone’s time,” he said.

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