Climate summit finale saddest
moment: Indian delegate
By Joydeep Gupta
Poznan
(Poland), Dec 13 (IANS) The climate summit ended in the early
hours of Saturday with the collapse of a key deal to pay developing
countries to cope with global warming. The senior-most member
of the Indian government delegation said: "This is one
of the saddest moments I have witnessed" during his attendance
in 12 such summits.
The
Dec 1-12 summit of the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) in this western Poland city had been stalled
for much of Friday over whether industrialised countries would
give to developing countries facing climate change effects
a larger portion of the money they make by trading carbon
emission permits.
The
scheme collapsed inside the closed meeting rooms when the
industrialised countries did not agree to increase from two
to three the percentage of levy from the carbon market. An
Indian government delegate who had been present at the meeting
said the naysayers were led by the European Union, Japan,
Canada, Australia and Russia.
The
collapse became evident about three hours into the start of
the final plenary session of the summit which started at 10.45
p.m. Friday. Before that, Poland's Environment Minister Maciej
Nowicki, the president of the Conference of Parties (CoP),
as the summit is called, had joyfully announced that an Adaptation
Fund that would provide money to least developed countries
(LDC) to cope with climate change effects had become operational
at the Poznan summit.
It
was India which brought the collapse out into the open, with
Prodipto Ghosh, member of the Prime Minister's Council on
Climate Change, saying: "In the 12 CoPs I have been privileged
to attend so far, this is one of the saddest moments I have
witnessed".
Ghosh
said the Article 9 review, which was looking at the increase
of the levy from two to three percent, "fell apart for
one, and one reason only. That is, the refusal of some parties
(countries) to experience the least loss of profits from trading
in carbon".
"Let
us look at why this refusal is tragic and painful," Ghosh
told those of the over 3,000 delegates from 186 countries
who were still left in the final plenary session.
"Even
now, millions of poor people in developing countries are losing
their homes, their livelihoods, and their lives from impacts
of climate change. Most live in extreme privation at the best
of times; climate change takes away their pitiable homes,
hearths and bread.
"What
did the developing countries want?
"That
while the world fills in the bigger picture, to use the only
instrument now available to raise resources that are undeniably
modest in relation to the need to provide some measure of
relief to these poor masses."
Instead,
said Ghosh, "what did we hear from the parties who could
not bear to be parted from a small share of their carbon profits?
That we need to agree on the overall architecture before they
can provide any money.
"In
the face of the unbearable human tragedy that we in developing
countries see unfolding every day, we see callousness, strategising
and obfuscation.
"We
can all of us, now see clearly what lies ahead at Copenhagen."
Summing
up the Poznan summit, Nowicki said: "I fully understand
and support the feelings of disappointment expressed by some
countries". Ghosh's feelings had been echoed by delegates
from Pakistan, Gabon, Bolivia and Maldives, who spoke on behalf
of LDCs.
Despite
that, Nowicki said, he would consider the Poznan summit had
made important progress by operationalising the Adaptation
Fund.
"I
believe our meeting in Poznan has indeed been an important
stepping stone on the road to Copenhagen," Nowicki concluded.
Speaking
to reporters after the end of the summit, UNFCCC Executive
Secretary Yvo de Boer also characterised the summit as a success
because it had launched the Adaptation Fund, had made advances
in helping reduce deforestation and because countries could
now start negotiating a deal that had to be concluded by the
end of next year.
Referring
to the sentiments expressed by India at the final session,
de Boer admitted that the summit "had caused some bitterness
because it proved impossible to raise all funds for adaptation".
He felt that all countries were hardening their positions
as negotiations were about to start.
"Let's
be honest about it," de Boer said. "Developed countries
see the additionality (in financing) as part of an overall
package" for the Copenhagen treaty. He did not think
that the notion of providing more money to developing countries
to help them with climate change was "abhorrent to industrialised
countries, but politically this was just not the time to do
it".
Climate
change, caused by increase in greenhouse gas emissions, mostly
by industrialised countries, is already lowering farm output,
leading to more frequent and more severe droughts, floods
and storms and raising the sea level, with developing countries
bearing the brunt.
(Joydeep
Gupta can be contacted at joydeep.g@ians.in)
Indo-Asian
News Service
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