Big calls, big protests as UN climate talks heat up

Dec 08, 2010 News

By Neil Marks in Cancun, Mexico

The UN climate talks heated up yesterday with passionate calls for a global agreement to avoid dangerous climate change, but the fight continued among big and small countries as protestors urged action that would not leave the most vulnerable out.
Mexico called out a mammoth police force as demonstrators took to the streets, mainly indigenous groups and farmers, calling for a Cancun agreement not to keep them out.
“I am deeply concerned that our efforts have been insufficient … that despite the evidence … and many years of negotiation … we are still not rising to the challenge,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening of the high-level segment of the conference.
With Cancun looking doomed not to reach a legally binding agreement, countries are looking for a balanced package that would include agreement on key issues and continue the dialogue for the next year until the next summit in South Africa next year.
Part of the package, powerful developing nations say must be included in a Cancun agreement, is one to extend the life of the current climate agreement – the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012.
But Japan is proving to be a tough nut to crack.
Under the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), industrialized countries committed themselves to a reduction of greenhouse gases. The Protocol expires in 2012 and a replacement arrangement is under negotiation.
Japan argues that the United States is not part of Kyoto and could therefore wriggle out of commitment to make substantial emissions reduction cuts if the protocol is extended. Japan basically wants a new agreement altogether. The US senate this year failed to pass legislation to slow greenhouse gas emissions.
“Japan’s hardline rejection of the second commitment of the Kyoto Protocol at this moment in Cancun is damaging for the ongoing negotiations and a far cry from the leadership that the government showed last year when committing to a 25 percent emission cut (from 1990 levels to be reached by 2020),” said the World Wildlife Fund, a global conservation body.
“With their attitude, the Japanese negotiators are effectively isolating Japan, globally.”
The countries that have a problem with Japan’s position are Brazil, South Africa, India and China, which are called the BASIC nations. The four powerhouses are not prepared to endorse any deal until a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol had been settled – the exact opposite of what Japan wants.
Guyana, which forms part of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), supports a second commitment period to Kyoto.
“A decision to have the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol begin on January 1, 2013, is one of the essential ingredients of any Cancun outcome that we are prepared to accept,” declared Tillman Thomas, the Prime Minister of Grenada, who is speaking on behalf of AOSIS countries.
“We are here for a reason: to protect people and the planet from uncontrolled climate change. To do that, we need to make progress – in these global negotiations and through national actions each of you takes in your countries to curb emissions (of harmful gases) and increase resilience,” Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, stated.
“The longer we delay, the more we will pay – economically … environmentally … and in human lives,” Mr. Ban said.
He highlighted some of the initiatives that the UN had embarked on to address climate change. They include the REDD Plus scheme, which seeks to create incentives to reverse the trend of deforestation and conserve forests’ carbon stocks.
“My High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Financing concluded that it is challenging but possible for developed countries to realize their goal of raising $100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to support climate action in developing countries. I encourage parties [to UNFCCC] to use the Group’s findings as inputs to your climate finance negotiations,” Mr. Ban said.
President Bharrat Jagdeo sat on the Advisory Group on Climate Financing and is scheduled to speak at an event today with Mr Ban.

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