Africa talks tough on climate change

By Martin Williams and Li Jianmin

JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- African countries have taken a hard line at the United Nations Climate Change talks in Barcelona early this month, adding to fears that no binding deal will be reached at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) summit in Copenhagen next month.

Sudan's Lumumba Di-Aping, chairman of the G77 group of developing nations, insisted that rich countries cut emissions by 40 percent by 2020, as proposed by UN scientists.

This is considerably higher than the aggregate 16 percent on the negotiating table.

Di-Aping on Thursday said rich countries had to move further. "We call on developed countries to step up to the challenge. We believe they have a moral, financial and political responsibility to live up to the challenge," he said.

"If you take the EU position of a 20 or 30 percent cut the result is to condemn developing countries to total destruction, loss of livelihoods, and economies, land forests will be destroyed. You can't solve the climate change problem by tinkering around the edges."

Di-Aping also said the rich nations could find the money to help poor countries adapt to climate change. He insisted that it be managed by the UN rather than the World Bank. He said the bulk of the money should come from public funds rather than carbon markets.

"The EU and the U.S. together found 20 trillion U. S. dollars to avert the credit crisis," he added.

Makase Nyaphisi, Lesotho ambassador in Germany and coordinator and chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said in Barcelona, "We need certain commitments. We know the scientific evidence. We know the impacts on agriculture, health and so on. We know what action needs to take place. And we are expecting that there have to be ambitious targets taken on by Annex-1 countries, and at the moment they are not coming up with that."

Annex I countries are industrialized economies and economies in transition. Annex I countries which have ratified the UN Protocol have committed to reduce emission levels of greenhouse gasses to targets that are mainly set below their 1990 levels.

Nyaphisi said, "Africa is not stalling discussions, nor will we do so at Copenhagen. But we must have an equitable, transparent and fair deal. Countries must stop holding their cards to their chest, and let us know what they are willing to do."

Cedric Lombardo, environmental adviser to the president of Coted' Ivoire, said, "We have taken a risk. We have given Annex-1 countries the opportunity to say that Africa is blocking the negotiation process."

Lombardo said Africa took this position because the science, as laid out by the IPCC, required that Annex-1 countries reduce greenhouse gases by 40 percent below 1990 levels, in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"Africa needs this commitment from developed countries because it is the continent that was most vulnerable to these catastrophic effects of climate change."

Artur Runge-Metzger, the European commission's chief negotiator, said developing countries had a responsibility to cut emissions, as well as rich nations. "They already account for a huge part of world emissions and in future they will dominate. The developing countries will decide the fate of the globe."

Runge-Metzger admitted that the EU and G77 are still different fundamentally in many areas, including the amount of money to be made available, the channels it should go through, whether the money is public or private, and the cuts which rich countries should make to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Lesotho's Bruno Sekoli, chair of the Least Developed Group of countries, said it is more important to get a good deal, however long it takes. "We do not want a compromise deal. If it takes a year, even two years, then we will continue talking. A bad deal is not good for Africa or vulnerable countries."

Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, backed the developing nations' perspective when he said in Copenhagen last month, "Climate justice demands that the industrialized countries meet their historic responsibility for the accumulation of greenhouse gases.

"They must lead in ensuring that global emissions peak by 2020 -and fall by at least 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2050", he said.

Addressing the Global Editors' Forum conference entitled "From Kyoto to Copenhagen" on Oct. 9, Annan said it was "a tragic irony that the countries which have done least to cause climate change are those which are suffering and will suffer from its impact."