by Agence France-Presse
Activists outside the Bonn climate talks ask negotiators to “pick up the pieces” after CopenhagenPhoto courtesy WWF Climate via FlickrBONN—Hopes of hoisting the U.N. process for climate change out of the mire after December’s flawed Copenhagen summit suffered a setback at talks here on Friday.
In their first parley since the stormy December meeting, countries in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) divided over how to plot the way forward, and the mood was soured by fresh finger-pointing.
“The one thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history,” said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of Congo, representing African nations. Copenhagen damaged “the trust that is necessary for any partnership,” he said.
The three-day gathering in the former West German capital takes place nearly four months after a summit that, far from rallying humankind behind a post-2012 climate-stabilizing pact, came within an inch of disaster.
Attended by some 120 heads of state and government, the summit was saved after a couple of dozen leaders cobbled together a brief document outlining areas of agreement. Their “Copenhagen Accord” sets down a general goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), includes rich and poor countries in pledges for tackling greenhouse gases, and earmarks nearly $30 billion in aid from 2010-2012, with prospects of up to $100 billion annually by 2020.
But criticism of the accord resurfaced on Friday.
Left-led countries in the Caribbean and Latin America noted that emissions pledges under the Copenhagen Accord are only voluntary and, at present levels, would ensure warming of 4 degrees C (7.2 degrees F) or more. They also denounced the accord as a stitchup among an elite group of countries; more than a third of UNFCCC parties have still not endorsed the deal.
“The total failure of the meeting in Copenhagen … was simply because the principles of the United Nations were not respected, nor were international rules,” blasted Venezuelan delegate Claudia Salerno. The “neo-colonialist exercise” seemed set to be revived, she warned.
In the quest to revitalize the process for the next big UNFCCC meeting, due in the Mexican resort of Cancun in November and December, many countries endorsed ideas for speeding a laborious affair that requires the approval of 194 parties. These include setting up a “contact group” of several dozen countries that would haggle over core issues, then submit the outcome to a plenary for its approval.
“We cannot go back to business as usual,” said Spanish delegate Alicia Montalvo, speaking for the E.U.
Mexico is chairing informal talks among some 40 key nations, while the United States on April 18-19 will stage talks among 17 economies that together account for more than 80 percent of world carbon emissions.
“We need to improve our working methods,” said Fernando Tudela, Mexico’s vice minister for planning and environmental policy. “This process of negotiations requires adjustment and modernization without of course using different practices that are used in the United Nations.”
Other issues on the table in Bonn will be how many extra meetings to stage before Cancun and whether attempts should be made to craft a draft negotiating text in the coming weeks.
Outside the venue, half a dozen protesters shovelled shards of broken glass in a symbolic appeal to the UNFCCC to “pick up the pieces” after Copenhagen.
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