Philippines government removes G77 lead negotiator
Comments offJust days before the landmark United Nations Climate Change Conference is set to begin in Copenhagen, Denmark, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo removed a key negotiator, known for being fiercely critical of Western countries’ perceived reluctance to take leadership in solving the climate crisis, from the Philippine delegation.
Bernaditas “Ditas” Muller, a retired Filipina diplomat based in Switzerland and an environmental adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs, has represented the Philippines to international climate talks since before the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and was instrumental in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. She is also currently the lead negotiator and spokesperson to the climate talks for 130 developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific island nations—a huge bloc known as the G77 and China.
Muller has incurred the ire of Western governments and the admiration of the developing world for her hard-line negotiating style. In the lead up to Copenhagen, she has been a key figure in holding Western countries accountable for their greater responsibility in causing climate change, of which poor countries who have not emitted much carbon are victims.
While President Arroyo’s office has remained silent so far on its reasons for removing Muller from the Philippine delegation, civil society groups suspect that the President may have acted under pressure from the United States and other industrialized nations.
A group of nearly 40 environmental and development NGOs released a statement last Friday warning that the President’s move is “inimical to the interests of the country and will cause a serious embarrassment for the Philippines and the rest of the developing world.”
“The negotiators of industrialized countries are really afraid of Ditas Muller because she keeps reminding them of their responsibilities. They want her out of the picture so that they can push their own agenda. There are many developing countries that depend on Muller to defend their interests,” said Chito Tionko of the Panay Rural Development Inc., one of the NGOs behind the statement.
In the lead up to Copenhagen, poor nations and environmental groups have criticized industrial nations, especially the United States and the European Union, for their perceived lack of ambition in setting forth carbon reduction targets and in delivering much-needed funding and technologies to help developing nations cope with the effects of climate change.
Despite research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommending that industrialized nations cut their carbon emissions to 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by the year 2020, the targets of most rich countries are lower. The United States has pledged the equivalent of a mere 4 per cent reduction.
Previously, the Philippines has been vocal in the international arena about calling for deeper and earlier cuts. However, it now seems that President Arroyo may be willing to sing a different tune. At a cabinet meeting in Bohol last November 10, President Arroyo said: “We need not insist on deep and early cuts in carbon emissions, but we should require countries to make a commitment.”
“We used to be one of those countries that was strongest in insisting on deep and early carbon cuts. But now, just because of what the US and their allies dictate, we have to weaken our position? President Arroyo has clearly sold out on the interests of the Filipino people,” said Meggy Nolasco of the Philippine Climate Watch Alliance.
Muller herself has chosen not to comment on the issue. She may still be able to negotiate in Copenhagen if the delegation of another country embraces her.
This may not be an unlikely scenario. Neth Dano from the Third World Network, an international development organization that has been closely monitoring international climate talks, says it’s “too important for G77 in this negotiation” for her not to participate in the talks.
Aside from Muller, several dozen other civil society members of the Philippine delegation, who negotiated for the country during previous climate talks in Bangkok and Barcelona, were also removed from the Philippine delegation to Copenhagen. As early as August, Presidential Adviser on Climate Change Secretary Heherson Alvarez recommended 38 government and civil society representatives to be included in the official Philippine delegation to the climate talks. The Department of Foreign Affairs had recommended more than 100.
The final delegation selected by President Arroyo included only around 20 names, without an explanation as to how they were chosen.
