Thailand has rejected a new draft negotiating text for long-term cooperation on climate change.
Its stance was in line with major developing countries under G77, plus China.
The text, tabled here in talks on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which ended on Friday, was seen as “imbalanced” by developing countries including Thailand. They felt the mitigation burden was being shifted to fall on their shoulders.
Their decision not to adopt the text could hinder efforts to pave the way for serious negotiations in the new round of climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of this year.
On behalf of the group, Yemen’s ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi urged Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe of Zimbabwe, who chaired the meeting, to restore balance in the text.
“The group is dismayed that the advance draft of a revised text you produced, madam, is imbalanced,” said Mr Alsaidi, adding that the group stressed the fact that the work must be “open, party-driven and transparent”.
More than 180 parties have met in Bonn over the past two weeks to help craft the new text after their last gathering in Copenhagen in December failed to adopt concrete actions, yielding just a political intent letter called the Copenhagen Accord.
It lined up controversial new greenhouse gases (GHG) mitigation burdens for developed and developing countries, adaptation proposals, as well as those regarding financial and technology transfers.
These key elements had been integrated into the new draft text by Ms Mukahanana-Sangarwe by a long-term cooperation working group before being tabled for the parties to consider.
Sangchan Limjirakan, an adviser to the Thai natural resources and environment minister, said the text was incomplete and notably lacked balance.
“It is not only not in line with the principles and provisions of the [climate] convention but also not within the direction already given under the mandate of the Bali Action Plan,” she said.
The Bali Action Plan calls for comparable efforts to end greenhouse gas mitigations, adaptation, as well as technology and finance transfer.
Ms Sangchan said the new draft saw the GHG mitigation burden critically shifted to developing countries as the task to reduce the gases in the long term was not specifically addressed to the parties involved, meaning developing countries had to bear the shared burden with developed countries.
Under the convention, developed countries are acknowledged as taking the lead, although several have made no commitments to cut gases yet.
“The text is not based on scientific evidence despite the fact that the convention is science-based,” Ms Sangchan said.
Bolivian ambassador Pablo Solan, whose country has taken an active stand on behalf of developing countries, said the accord has eliminated almost all of the options for negotiation.
“How are we going to negotiate if we have an imbalanced text?” the ambassador said.
“The role of the referee is to put a ball in the game. But what we have seen is the chair producing a text which reflects her understanding, not the parties.”
He said the situation was very critical if the document was to produce an outcome in Cancun.
The UNFCCC meanwhile said progress was made at the meeting as it helped at least to flesh out the specifics of how a climate regime can work in practice.”A big step forward is now possible at Cancun in the form of a full package of operational measures that will allow countries to take faster, stronger action across all areas of climate change,” said Yvo de Boer, the UNFCCC’s outgoing executive secretary.
