Although UN delegates are always trying to gild the lily, the simple truth is that progress was hard to come by the UNFCCC* climate talks in Poznan, Poland, and every step forward was followed by an unfortunate step backwards. Even as UN officials were calling the meeting a success, pointing to the EU agreement to cut emissions by 20% over the next dozen years, developing nations were feeling like they had been hung out to dry, and suggest that a deal in Copenhagen won’t be forthcoming.
Delegates agreed with the timeline for further talks leading up to the Copenhagen meeting, scheduling two conferences for late March and early June to be hosted in Bonn, and a third meeting in August or September. They also say they will have the climate pact’s draft text ready by June, hopefully giving President-elect Barack Obama time to formulate his administration’s plans. Progress was also made on reforming the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to speed up project approvals, but forest carbon and CCS credits could not be agreed upon.
But the divide between developed and developing countries is wider than ever. The UN announced the launch of an adaptation fund for developing economies initially worth about $80 million annually, with provisions for it to increase to $300 million a year by 2012. The fund will draw on cash raised through a two per cent levy on the CDM.
But delegates from developing economies described the fund as derisory, and it’s hard to disagree with their assessment, given that the UN earlier claimed that poorer nations will require up to $80 billion to adapt to the worst effects of climate change.
Echoing the comments of many negotiators from developing countries, Colombian Environment minister Juan Lozano said he was “so sad and so disappointed” by the deal. “The human side of climate change is the suffering of our orphans and our victims and that was not considered here,” he said. “It’s a bad signal on the road to Copenhagen”.
See a longer story at Business Green.
________________________
* UNFCCC — United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change