Developing countries split at climate talks
Leader of LDC bloc, Bruno Sekoli from Lesotho
By Henry Lutaaya in Copenhagen
Divisions have emerged within the G77/China group of countries as well as between the African bloc threatening to make the possibility of reaching a deal next week the more difficult.
Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, the Executive Director of the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and a member of Uganda’s negotiation team told me that African countries have begun to shift positions and are now pursuing economic interests rather than environmental goals that have largely bound them together for over a decade when the talks begun.
The split arose from a new position that has been adopted by the Least Developed Countries supported by the Small Island Nations (OASIS) that sets a new and more ambitious target that would ensure that global temperatures don’t go beyond 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.
The global temperature is estimated to be about 0.7 higher than pre-industrial levels and is rising fast. A new report released Tuesday by the World Meteorological Organization said that the decade 2000 – 2010 is on track to recording the warmest temperatures ever.
LDCs and Oasis also insist they will settle for nothing less than a legally binding agreement as opposed to a political agreement that seems to be taking shape. The chair of the LDC group Bruno Sekoli down played the split but stressing that all LDCs are committed to a 1.5 degree target.
But according to many journalists following the negotiations, there is no ambition particularly by the major players, Europe, China and the US to have a legally binding agreement.
Mugisha cited China, Brazil, South Africa and India as not ready to move in tandem with the common position agreed by majority of the G77 membership. The G77 group comprises 130 countries, but has sub-groups such as LDCs, Africa and Oasis.
“The say that they are still part of the G77 but when you read their text, it says something different,” one senior member of the Ugandan delegation said: “It is clear that economic interests have over-taken environmental interests.”
Within the African bloc Nigeria and Sudan, according to the Ugandan delegate, appear to be shifting away from the position favored by the most vulnerable countries to climate change including LDCs and Small Island Nations (Oasis). Instead, the two countries are said to be moving in the direction preferred by Oil producing countries (OPEC).
George Wamukoya, an advisor to the African Union however argues that new position of 1.5C has further reduced the chances of reaching an agreement between developed and developing countries. The new target is also higher than what the Kyoto protocol had set.
Under the Kyoto protocol, developed countries, apart from the US which is not part of it, had agreed to limit greenhouse gases at 2 degrees before the year 2020.
Senior members of the Ugandan delegation have said they stand by the 1.5 degree target, beyond which they say Uganda’s economy will face serious problems as economic activities like coffee growing will become nearly impossible.
The African position comes two days after Achim Steiner, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme noted that the 2C target which many countries say is the safe permissible limit of global temperature rise may not be enough.
Steiner told a news conference at COP-15 this week: “I think a 50% probability of staying below 2C is a hell of a risk to take, and in the future the science may well say a 1.5C limit would be safer. But 2C gives us a basis for negotiation here in Copenhagen.” Among those urging the adoption of a 1.5C limit are AOSIS and the respected climate scientist Professor James Hansen of the US.
The G77/China group is the largest bloc recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the body that is responsible for the ongoing talks in Copenhagen.
