Climate talks seek calm after storm at draft text
By Agence France-Presse
Wed, Dec 09 2009 at 12:05 PM EST
Read more: CLIMATE CHANGE, COPENHAGEN CLIMATE TALKS
UNDER FIRE: Yvo de Boer, UN Climate chief, insists the none of the documents circulating are not in any way formal. (Photo: ZUMA Press) Negotiators at the UN climate marathon tried Wednesday to calm a furious row over an early draft text which highlighted the summit tensions between rich carbon emitters and the world's poor.
After widespread anger among developing nations had punctured a growing sense of optimism at the summit, the UN climate pointman insisted the document was out of date.
"That text, and other texts that have been circulating, have not been on the table in a formal sense," said Yvo de Boer.
EMAIL
Facebook
Stumble
Tweet
Digg"They were the basis for discussion among a number of countries, actually a week and a day ago, and have never been tabled in any formal way.
"But I think the (mood) that's out there, people see that as a document that they don't want to be the base for negotiation."
The row which erupted late Tuesday illustrated the divides which will need to be bridged at the December 7-18 parlay aimed at lancing the threat posed by global warming.
The summit encountered further turbulence Wednesday when a split emerged among developing countries on the key area of emissions controls.
Danish police meanwhile said they had carried out an overnight raid in Copenhagen where foreign activists were staying, seizing material which was deemed incitement.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon's prediction Tuesday that the summit would seal "a robust agreement" had captured a sense of optimism.
But the controversy which erupted hours later over the leaked draft changed the atmosphere, unleashing charges by poorer nations that it had been cooked up in private.
The Danish text is a "serious violation that threatens the success of the Copenhagen negotiating process," declared Sudan's Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, who heads the Group of 77 bloc of developing countries.
But he said poorer nations would not boycott the talks.
"The G77 members will not walk out of this negotiation at this late hour because we can't afford a failure in Copenhagen," he told journalists.
Several delegates told AFP Wednesday that they were angry that an 11-day-old text -- badly out of date, given the fast-moving pace of the climate negotiations -- caused such a kerfuffle.
One delegate said: "It's an interesting sign of how far some delegations will go to undermine Denmark's efforts to get an ambitious deal."
A separate split among developing countries on emissions cuts divided large, emerging nations and some of the world's smallest states.
The Pacific island of Tuvalu suggested emerging giant economies accept binding emissions curbs under the Kyoto Protocol.
Tuvalu was supported by least-developed countries, Costa Rica and small-island states, but its initiative was blocked by China and India, delegates said.
Until now, developing countries have been united on saying that only rich economies should be tied to binding emissions targets under Kyoto.
On top of those divisions, the "Climategate" controversy received further attention. Former U.S. vice president turned environmental crusader Al Gore said the emails at the centre of the row were being taken out of context.
The emails intercepted from scientists at a top centre for climate research have been seized upon by sceptics as evidence that the experts twisted data in order to dramatise global warming.
"Well, they took a few phrases out of context. These are private emails, more than 10 years old, and they've tried to blow it up into something that it's really not," Gore told CNN.
The 194 nations meeting in Copenhagen under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are seeking to secure an agreement spelling out national pledges for curbing heat-trapping carbon emissions.
Over the past 250 years, atmospheric concentrations of these invisible, odourless, tasteless gases have risen, propelled by the unbridled use of coal, oil and gas.
In tandem, atmospheric temperatures have surged in the last quarter-century.
Scientists fear far worse is to come this century in the form of drought, flood, storms and rising seas that will threaten tens of millions.
The envisioned December 18 accord will also pump hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to poor countries, providing them with newer technology and the means to toughen their defences against the impact of climate change.
Further talks would be needed, probably throughout 2010, to fill in the details of the skeletal agreement. The hope is to usher in a new planetary-wide agreement from 2013 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
On the Net:
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
Want more? Check out our climate change section.
Link
