December
8, 2007
Lack of Progress at Bali Worries
top UN Official By Joydeep Gupta
Bali
A top UN official Saturday expressed his worry that differences
among the 187 countries gathered here for the climate change summit
had not been narrowed down sufficiently, and "too many issues will
slip into the high-level segment" that starts Dec 12 with the
arrival of ministers from these countries.
On the main point of difference, United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said,
"Some countries are calling for legally binding targets" for
developing countries after 2012 for reductions in emissions of
greenhouse gases (GHG) that are leading to climate change, while
"some other countries are asking for reductions by developing
countries if they were helped with technological and financial
resources".
Asked to name the countries that had called for legally binding
targets for developing countries, de Boer replied: "Canada and
Japan".
He hoped the debate on this issue would come at 2009 - when the
negotiations for a post-2012 agreement were supposed to end - and
not now, when the negotiations were supposed to start.
Asked to indicate the response of developing countries to this
development, de Boer referred to the commitments already made by
China in its national action plan and said: "China has indicated
that it could move further with international cooperation.
"As for India, to ask a country where 400 million people do not have
electricity to cut GHG emissions makes no sense. I do not think
developing countries should take on legal commitments."
There were other major points on which the Bali summit was stuck.
Many developing countries had mooted a technology transfer fund that
would help them buy clean technology, mainly by buying out patents.
According to de Boer, the setting up of this fund "is still being
discussed. Industrialised countries are pointing out that there is a
special climate change fund already. They are suggesting that
funding for climate change be also done through the GEF" - the
Global Environment Facility of the World Bank and UNDP, which
administers the clean development mechanism funds generated through
a levy on carbon trading.
The Indonesian government has called a meeting of trade ministers
from around the world this weekend and of finance ministers on
Monday and Tuesday. These meetings would be useful to the UN
conference the UN official hoped.
"There is a widely held perception that acting on climate change is
a drag on economic growth. We should be able to show that it is not
necessarily correct if the carbon market works."
There was not even any agreement on whether the negotiations for a
post-2012 agreement (the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012) should be
formal or an informal dialogue or a combination of the two.
UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and the many ministers who will
gather here next week have a lot of work on their hands.
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