Climate Change to be discussed at forum, not negotiated

Climate Change to be discussed at forum, not negotiated – PM Manning

Nov 27, 2009 News

By Gary Eleazar in Trinidad

Today, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 will officially get underway here in Port of Spain, with the world watching and listening to what the leaders of more than fifty countries, both from the developed and the developing world, will say about Climate Change.
Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, mere hours before the opening, informed media operatives that the gravity of the issue has warranted a special session, but this is for discussions and not negotiations.
Manning is hopeful that the leaders will arrive at a political statement that will seek to add value to Copenhagen.
CHOGM 2009 is the last major confab before the Copenhagen Climate Change talks in Denmark, where many are hoping that a successor to the Kyoto Protocol is developed.
As such, the T&T Prime Minister pointed out that at his invitation, attending CHOGM 2009 will be the United Nations Secretary General, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Director General, the Prime Minister of Denmark and the French President.
Manning noted that the invitations were partly extended to those persons because there was a source of concern as it relates to the direction that the Climate Change negotiations were taking in light of its culmination in Copenhagen next month.
According to Manning, the invitation of the power houses was aimed at lending weight and support to the political statement that would hopefully be issued, “we thought we could add value and weight to the voice of the Commonwealth if other non-Commonwealth countries and agencies be associated with us.”
Manning stressed that the Commonwealth comprises of countries from both the developed and developing world, “therefore a statement coming from countries that is diverse as the Commonwealth will be much more reflective of the world opinion.”
He called for persons not to prejudge the contributions that will be made by the various world leaders whilst re-emphasising that there is already a negotiating process and as such, the deliberations will not be that.
That negotiation process, he said, has been ongoing for some time now.
Manning stated that CHOGM was never contemplated to be a forum to negotiate climate change but, “what we could do is raise our voices politically having regard for our own diversity.”
The Trinidad & Tobago leader cautioned that a political statement out of CHOGM is not one that could be taken lightly, “it comes with the weight of so many countries and so many people and so we feel that it can have some effect on influencing the direction on where the discussions go in Denmark.”
Manning said he is anxiously awaiting the comment by the various leaders on the topic and it is based on what is said during that special session of CHOGM that the statement will be fashioned.
“Trinidad and Tobago has their own views on this matter and our voices will undoubtedly be heard…but we will be one of 51, so we will have to wait and see what the other 50 will have to say.”
Secretary General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma was in full praise of the host nation’s Prime Minister for what he called having faith in Commonwealth by investing that much resources to host CHOGM 2009.
CHOGM 2009 will be opened today at the spanking new and impressive more than 400,000 square feet Performing Arts Centre, and outside of Climate Change, the 51 leaders will be discussing among other things the current global financial crisis, the need for the reform of the International Financial Institutions and non-communicable chronic diseases.
At the 2007 summit in Kampala, Uganda, Commonwealth Heads of Government reaffirmed their decision to meet in Trinidad and Tobago this year.
The CHOGM is the supreme body of the Commonwealth and it is convened every two years to review global, political and economic developments and to conduct a strategic overview of the Commonwealth’s work in support of the interests of member countries.
The objective of the Summit is to engage leaders of the Commonwealth in discussing global and Commonwealth issues and to agree upon collective policies and initiatives.

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