Climate talks reach critical stage
Ministers have 24 hours to solve many outstanding problems
By Henry Lutaaya in Copenhagen
Perhaps the two best placed people to judge the tempo of the ongoing Copenhagen talks say there is a huge amount of work facing ministers over the next 24 hours if there is any chance of reaching an agreement in Copenhagen.
Danish minister and the President of COP 15, Connie Hedegaard said: “Ministers must be extremely busy and very focused in the next 24 hours, if we have to see success,” said Hedegaard.
She was supported by UNFCCC Secretary General Yvo de Boer who said: “There is still an enormous amount of work that has to be done in order to achieve the ambitious targets on reducing emissions, immediate and robust financing. We need to nail that down in the next 24 hours.”
Wednesday December 16, marks the formal opening of high level negotiations between ministers, before an estimated 115 heads of state are scheduled to pronounce whether or not the world will be able to produce a meaningful deal on curtailing global warming.
“We are in a very important phase,” de Boer hinted amidst mounting pressure from many recognised personalities of the world who are in Copenhagen beginning Monday.
Among these are, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, Former Ireland President Mary Robinson, Former Vice President Al Gore and Califonia governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
While the sense of urgency for a binding agreement has been growing since the conference opened 10 days ago, many are amazed at the diabolical lack of progress towards resolving many outstanding problems.
Hedegaard recognized this much when she said that there are still many obstacles that stand in the way of reaching agreement.
For once, it is the way the UN system and its 193 member countries, operates.
All countries have to agree to everything.
“This is utterly complicated, we have to find another way of doing things differently,” Hedegaard recognized.
She and her country Denmark have tried to do it differently, by inviting ministers from all over the world to get engaged in the process to have a political agreement, rather wait for them to deal with the complicated issues in the last two days when the conference is about to end.
She pointed to disagreements over the unwillingness by countries to commit money to the adaptation fund to support poor countries.
She particularly pointed to the absence of the US in the talks over the past 17 years, for having stalled the process, because many of the rich countries, she observed, which had committed to reducing emissions under the Kyoto protocol, have used the absence of the US as an excuse not to move.
Other key issues yet to be discussed regard governance of climate change. This is a vast problem. It relates to how the billions being demanded – if they ever come, will be governed. Many are opposed to having the World Bank and the IMF to take charge of the money because they fear red tape will frustrate supposed beneficiaries. But also many fear the money will go back to the rich countries through paying for WB consultants.
The governance problem also relates to how will countries be policed to ensure that they stick to commitments to cut their emissions.
China and India do not want to be policed, and many are weary that developing countries will not submit to monitoring in the way they use money given to them.
