Developed countries accused of dividing developing ones
No commentsNegotiators from major economies, China and India have accused the developed countries of deliberately trying to divide developing ones.
European Union officials have dismissed that and said disagreements already exist in the G77 plus China block.
“There have been some efforts to deliberately divide us,” one of the senior Chinese negotiators, Qingtai Yu told the BBC. “We have seen such moves here and this is nothing new.
“We have been their target in the past as well but we have been able to withstand it,” he said referring to the developed world. He however did not elaborate how such “divisions” were being created.
An Indian negotiator echoed the same message, adding, “In fact some of the poor countries have been threatened (by some developed countries not to toe the line of the G77) and we know there will be many such efforts.”
The G77 plus China has demanded that negotiations should take place under the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change and the Kyoto process.
Signed in 1997 and expiring in two years and therefore warranting a new treaty, the Kyoto Protocol requires almost all developed countries to cut their carbon emissions compulsorily while developing countries are exempted from that provision.
Citing that very reason, the United States of America rejected it and most developed countries now want to get out of the Kyoto process.
They want emerging economies like China and India to make mandatory and verifiable carbon cut commitments as these major economies’ shares in global emission has been increasing significantly.
As the two sides have stuck to their guns, some small island states and least developed countries that are under the G77 banner have demanded that there has to be a legally binding treaty tougher than Kyoto.
They have insisted on an average global temperature rise below 1.5 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial time that began in the 18th century and want carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere to be limited to 350 parts per million, meaning 350 litres of the greenhouse gas in every million litres of air.
Major economies like China, India and Brazil earlier this year had reached into an understanding with developed worlds to keep global warming under two degrees and the greenhouse gas concentration within 450 ppm.
Some negotiators from developed world point at that division within the G77 plus China grouping.
“The allegation that we are trying to divide them is baseless and incomprehensible,” said Karl Falkenberg, a representative of the European Commission. “You can see how divided they are on issues like average temperature rise and blaming us for that state does no good.”
Amidst all this, European leaders announced that they would pay a little above seven billion Euros over three years to poorer countries to help them cope with climate change.
The 7.2 billion Euros European aid is under the proposed package of 10 billion dollars a year designed to help Africa, island nations and other vulnerable nations from next year until 2012.
Chairman of the Least Developed Countries bloc, Bruno Tseliso Sekoli said that the money pledged was not enough.
“Any money that would flow from the developed to developing worlds would be welcome but these numbers are very, very low,” he told the BBC.
Lumumba Di-Aping, a diplomat of Sudan that chairs the G77 plus China, was even more critical about the 10 billion dollars aid. “The money will not even be enough to buy coffins (for those who will die because of climate change impacts),” he said at a press meet earlier this week.
A solid indication that the distrust between developed worlds and developing ones had been deepening.
The latest allegations by major economies like China and India that the developing and least developed countries’ grouping is being divided by developed worlds – whether it is true or not – shows that things are only getting worse.
