Demonstrations challenge the role of the western imperialist states in polluting the majority of land on earth. The Durban COP 17 conference has been marked by fierce debate and struggle., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Climate talks suspended after rebellion over drafts
2:51pm EST
By Nina Chestney and Jon Herskovitz
DURBAN (Reuters) - Developing states most at risk from global warming rebelled against a proposed deal at U.N. climate talks Friday, forcing host South Africa to draw up new draft documents in a bid to prevent the talks collapsing.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane suspended the talks in Durban after a coalition of island nations, developing states and the European Union complained the current draft lacked ambition, sources said.
"There was a strong appeal from developing countries, saying the commitments in the proposed texts were not enough, both under the Kyoto Protocol and for other countries," said Norway's Climate Change Minister Erik Solheim.
The European Union has been rallying support to its plan to set a 2015 target date for a new climate deal that would impose binding cuts on the world's biggest emitters of heat-trapping gases, a pact that would come into force up to five years later.
Canada's Environment Minister Peter Kent told Reuters there was "serious negotiating to do" if the conference was to wrap up as planned Friday.
"The (current) draft discusses the legal framework. There are different points of view and this is what this process is all about," he said. "Legal framework works for us at this point."
The crux of the dispute is how binding the legal wording in the final document will be. The initial draft spoke of a "legal framework," which critics said committed parties to nothing.
The new draft being worked on by the hosts could mention a "legal instrument," or even "protocol or other legal instrument," language that implies a more binding commitment.
UNDER PRESSURE
The EU strategy has been to forge a coalition of the willing designed to heap pressure on the world's top three carbon emitters -- China, the United States and India -- to sign up to binding cuts. None are bound by the Kyoto Protocol.
EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said earlier that a "small number of states" had yet to sign up to the EU plan and that time was running out for a deal in Durban.
Washington says it will only pledge binding cuts if all major polluters make comparable commitments. China and India say it would be unfair to demand they make the same level of cuts as the developed world, which caused most of the pollution responsible for global warming.
Many envoys believe two weeks of climate talks in Durban will at best produce a weak political agreement, with states promising to start talks on a new regime of binding cuts in greenhouse gases.
"A crash is still a possibility. It is going to go on all night. That much is clear," said Tim Gore, policy advisor at Oxfam.
U.N. reports released in the last month show time is running out to achieve change. They show a warming planet will amplify droughts and floods, increase crop failures and raise sea levels to the point where several island states are threatened with extinction.
The dragging talks frustrated delegates from small islands and African states, who joined a protest by green groups outside as they tried to enter the main negotiating room.
"You need to save us, the islands can't sink. We have a right to live, you can't decide our destiny. We will have to be saved," Maldives' climate negotiator Mohamed Aslam said.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Allan, Agnieszka Flak and Stian Reklev; editing by Jon Boyle)
December 9, 2011
6:15 pm
Protests over draft climate agreement
By Pilita Clark and Andrew England
Financial Times
Some of the nations most vulnerable to climate change lashed out at draft proposals to curb carbon emissions as negotiators at UN climate talks in Durban worked into the night to avoid the collapse of two weeks of fraught talks.
Small island states, which are deemed to be the most at risk, the European Union and others have been insisting on a legally binding agreement by 2015 that would come into force by no later than 2020. However a draft text released after negotiations continued into the early hours on Friday instead proposed a “legal framework” that would be applicable after 2020.
Rich-poor divide widens in advanced economies
“It doesn’t become operational until after 2020 so we are looking at God knows when . . . what is a legal framework, I would like to know,” said Karl Hood, foreign minister of Grenada, which chairs the alliance of small island states in the talks. “My first instinct is to reject it of out of hand . . . is this a COP [conference of parties] or is this a corpse?
“We believe it will change because most delegates have raised questions about it.”
Some EU members also fear that the term, “legal framework”, is too ambiguous and are not ready to sign off on the text.
The talks in South Africa have largely centred on an EU offer to sign up for a new round of pledges under the Kyoto protocol, key elements of which expire in a year.
But the EU has insisted that it would only do so if the rest of the world agreed to start negotiating a comprehensive and legally binding global pact to reduce emissions. The US and India have both balked at a legally enforceable agreement and though China says it would agree to such a deal, it is unclear if it would accept legal obligations itself.
The result has left negotiators scrambling for a deal that would see Kyoto commitments extended for a second period, while also getting some sort of progress on a new global agreement that brings in the largest emitters – China, the US and India.
Connie Hedegaard, the European Commission climate commissioner, warned earlier on Friday that the talks would end with no deal to save Kyoto unless those three changed their position.
“If there’s no further movement, from what I have seen until 4 o’clock this [Friday] morning then I must say I don’t think there will be a deal in Durban. That is what we are faced with,” she said.
“The success or failure of Durban hangs on the small number of countries who have not yet committed to the road map. We need to get them on board today. We do not have many hours left, the world is waiting for them.”
The US, India and China cancelled news conferences scheduled for Friday afternoon as the negotiations became more intense.
“The European Union is standing very firm to make sure that we get a credible, international, legally binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions that has genuine environmental integrity,” said Chris Huhne, UK climate secretary. “That’s what we want and we are determined to get it.”
However, whether the EU would maintain this position was unclear last night as negotiators continued debating draft texts.
“I think this is sufficiently ambiguous that the US could live with it but it’s well short of what the EU is demanding so it isn’t clear we have a deal,” said Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the US-based Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions think-tank. “Without a deal on the way forward then Kyoto may collapse, in fact everything here may collapse.”
The result of the talks will also determine whether a multibillion dollar green climate fund comes into operation. It was supposed to be approved by the conference after a committee chaired by Trevor Manuel, the former South African finance minister, spent nearly a year designing a blueprint.
But approval has been delayed in the intense negotiations surrounding the Kyoto protocol and the second, more comprehensive climate pact. As afternoon talks began, dozens of rowdy activists filled the convention halls outside the main negotiating room, chanting “Listen to the People, Not the Polluters.”
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