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At climate change meet, rich-poor divide perceptible

POZNAN (POLAND): At the U.N. climate talks which finished in the early hours of Saturday, the divide between rich and poor nations was obvious in their differing views of what has been achieved here.

“We have seen very good results here ... It was seen as a blue collar conference and it has fulfilled its objectives,” said Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki, who hosted the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. He pointed out that the work agenda to prepare the ground for a post-2012 global climate action pact next December was complete.

The mood of developing countries was bitter. “The world had immense hopes that the Poznan COP would send a clear signal ... that would herald a new era in global cooperation,” senior Indian negotiator Pradipto Ghosh told delegates, as the meet ended at 3 a.m. after a deadlock on the issue of expanding resources for a fund to help the poorest countries adapt themselves to climate change impacts — rising sea levels, melting glaciers and spreading deserts.

“But in the face of the unbearable human tragedy that we see unfolding every day, we have seen callousness, strategising and obfuscation,” he said, adding the negotiations fell apart because of developed countries which “could not bear to be parted from even a miniscule share of their carbon profits.”

“There is a growing vision gap between the two sides,” said the delegate from the African nation of Gabon.

That gap will do nothing to ease the way as delegates prepare for the 12-month road to Copenhagen, where the next COP is expected to end in a global pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change through mitigation, adaptation, technology and financial efforts.

At least four meetings are expected to be held in the course of the year, with the United Nations Secretary-General and several other key players calling for at least one meeting of heads of state on the issue to provide the political thrust needed to speed up the process. Draft negotiating texts are expected to be ready by June.

“We are at the half-way mark, but half the work has not been done,” warned UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer. “The last year has been about discussing the ideas, developing a good atmosphere. The real negotiations are just beginning.”

Much of that good atmosphere was in shreds after the bitter discussions on Saturday morning left the developing nations convinced that rich countries were merely playing politics with a delaying tactic. “We were not asking for a lot here. The voices of weeping victims have not been heard. We are talking about an emergency, but we have not felt that emergency,” said Colombian delegate Juan Lozano Ramirez.

“Finance for adaptation is not about a compromise text, not about strategies or tactics. It is all about human lives,” said Costa Rican delegate Christiana Figueres, adding that unless the developed countries moved from well-meant declarations to concrete action, it would not “bode well for Copenhagen.”

Pakistani delegate Farrukh Khan summed up the frustrations and suspicions of the developing countries by misquoting the proverb about the road to hell.

“The road to Copenhagen is being paved with good intentions,” he said.

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