African climate negotiators warn Denmark not to meddle
Comments offAfrican negotiators at the Copenhagen climate change talks that kicked off on 7 December have expressed displeasure with what they regard as growing interference by developed countries, particularly Denmark, the host country.
They accuse Denmark of having separately met a delegation from South Africa and Lesotho, the chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) bloc in the negotiations. The African majority fears this is an attempt to undermine unity among members of the group.
African Union Climate Advisor George Wamukoya
George Wamukoya, an advisor to the African Union delegation, said: “We are aware that the Danish government has come up with a text and has separately tried to convince some members African countries to accept it.
“We are simply saying that any agreement from COP-15 [the official title of the conference] must be by consensus of all parties in the negotiations process, not a few members.
“We find it is unacceptable and goes against the spirit of the convention that the host government is trying to defraud the process.”
The furore among African delegates originates from a document that allegedly originated from the Danish government. Many experts and delegates fear leaders could sign it and then claim success at the end of the two-week process.
Wamukoya added: “We respect the Danish government as hosts, and expect them to remain neutral in providing an enabling environment.”
George Bright Kwaku, a member of Ghana’s delegation, also spoke of external influence in the negotiations and singled out Denmark as trying to bribe the process.
The long-awaited 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened here on Monday amidst worries that a legally-binding agreement is not foreseeable before the meeting ends on 18 December.
The leaders of the African delegations are understood to be committed to ensuring that the negotiations under the UNFCCC, ongoing for nearly two decades, succeed – something they fear the Danish approach could imperil.
But in what is seen as a hardening stance by developing countries, African negotiators walked out of a pre-COP meeting in Barcelona recently over concerns that developed countries were not ready to cut their greenhouse gas emissions sharply enough.
Just days before the Copenhagen talks opened, the Philippine government removed its lead negotiator, Bernaditas Muller. However, according to Wamukoya, the G77 is hiring her to advise it. She was sighted with the G77 delegation on Monday.
A request by this reporter to the Danish delegation to respond to concerns that Denmark is undermining the unity of African nations and the UNFCCC negotiation process, has drawn no response.
African countries and many other developing nations in the G77/China group are pressing developed countries to commit substantial amounts of money to enable them to adapt to climatic impacts. They also want the developed world to transfer technology to enable them to cope with the adverse effects of climate change.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed the creation of a quick-start fund worth US $ 10 billion to fund adaptation projects in developing countries. But the chair of the G77/China bloc, Ambassador Lumumba Di-Aping from Sudan, has dismissed the offer as too little – “not enough to buy us coffins.”
The move has also been criticised by many non-governmental organisations like Greenpeace, Oxfam and WWF, who are calling on rich countries to make a long-term commitment to transfer resources to countries that are most vulnerable to climate change.
A number of recent studies have suggested that developing countries will need up to US$ 200 billion annually by the year 2020 in addition to official development assistance, if they are to build sufficient defences against climate change.
