The rift is widening between developed and developing nations as talks on a global treaty to tackle climate change moves into its fifth day in Copenhagen.
Chinese delegation ambassador Qingtai Yu told reporters on Friday that even though China, Brazil, South Africa and India has prepared a text to “represent their ideas and positions”, the G77 and China bloc of developing nations remain united in their stand.
The bloc wants the new treaty to continue to bind developed nations to reduce their emissions as under the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), while containing sufficient safeguards for developing countries to the “right to develop”.
“We will not accept anything that would sacrifice our right to develop and prolong our conditions of poverty and lack of development,” he said.
EU ambassador Karl Falkenberg, however, responded by saying: “we fully respect the right that developing countries have the right to economic growth, but we believe this can be achieved in a sustainable fashion. Continued carbon-based economic growth is also contributing to poverty, not alleviating it”.
He added that the EU was looking for an outcome that effectively deals with climate change. “We know from science that no single group of countries is going to be able to solve the climate change issue. We need to come to a collective peaking of emissions… and the EU is supporting differentiated contribution but we are very clear that we need contributions form everyone, in a reliable, binding manner.”
India’s key climate change negotiator Chandrashekhar Dasgupta said that developing nations will refuse to sign any agreement that curbs their right to emit, however.
Any deal, he said, should be an effective response to climate change, and also addresses climate adequacy or climate justice.
What the EU has suggested, he claims, is a departure from the provisions of the UNFCCC, which calls on developed countries to pay for climate mitigation and adaptation in developing nations.
But who is going to pay? He asked. “The answer to that has been rather disappointing. There has been attempts to change the rules of the game,” he said.
All negotiators admitted that talks between developed and developing nations have been at an impasse, with little progress over the last five days. But all agreed that they will not give up until some consensus is achieved, even if it takes until the very last day.
