Africa protest hits UN climate talks
DENMARK: A protest by African nations accusing rich countries of
doing too little to cut greenhouse gas emissions slowed UN climate talks
on Monday just four days before world leaders are due to forge a deal in
Copenhagen.
After a five-hour standoff, the African nations let talks restart
after assurances their objections would be heard. They accused the rich
of trying to kill off the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges many
industrialised nations to cut emissions until 2012.
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Africa protest
* African group wants preserve Kyoto, UN's
climate pact
* Talks resume, but deep splits on
emissions, finance |
"We're talking again," said Kemal Djemouai, an Algerian official who
leads the group of African nations at the Dec. 7-18 meeting. Talks on a
pact to succeed Kyoto have been sluggish since they started two years
ago in Bali, Indonesia.
But negotiators have scant time to reach a new U.N. deal to fight
global warming at a summit of 110 world leaders on Friday, shifting the
world economy from fossil fuels in a bid to avert heatwaves, floods,
mudslides or rising sea levels.
In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama was
working this week to help advance the Copenhagen talks ahead of his
visit for the summit.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said developing countries such as
China and India would have to do their part to reach a climate accord.
China is the top greenhouse gas emitter ahead of the United States.
After overcoming the African objections in Copenhagen, negotiators on
Monday appointed pairs of ministers from poor and rich nations to seek
solutions to the most contentious issues ahead of the summit.
Ghana and Britain would examine ways to raise billions of dollars in
new funds to help the poor, Grenada and Spain would look at disputes
about sharing out the burden of emissions cuts by 2020. Singapore and
Norway would look at a possible levy on bunker fuels to help raise
funds.
Despite the huge amount of work ahead, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern
said: "The desire will be that nothing is booted upstairs," for Obama
and other world leaders to hash out when they arrive in Copenhagen.
Earlier, African delegates said that the rich were trying ditch the
Kyoto Protocol, which binds almost 40 industrialised nations to cut
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by
2008-12.
Copenhagen, Thursday, Reuters
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