UN chief urges world powers to end climate
bickering
December 23, 2009 - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed for world
powers to make a new effort to secure a legally binding climate deal
next year amid new diplomatic wrangling over the failure of the
Copenhagen summit.
China hit back at Britain over claims that Beijing had "hijacked" the
Copenhagen negotiations while Brazil's president blamed US leader Barack
Obama for the accord.
With scientists warning of the growing threat of drought, floods, storms
and rising sea levels, Ban acknowledged international disappointment
over the summit accord on restraining rising temperatures when he
returned to the UN headquarters.
"I am aware that the outcome of the Copenhagen conference, including the
Copenhagen Accord, did not go as far as many would have hoped," Ban told
reporters.
"Nonetheless they represent a beginning, an essential beginning," he
added.
Ban said "the leaders were united in purpose, but they were not united
in action," and pressed them "to directly engage in achieving a global
legally binding climate change treaty in 2010." The UN boss said he
would set up a high-level panel on development and climate change early
in 2010.
The Copenhagen agreement was assembled by leaders of the United States,
China, India, Brazil, South Africa and major European nations, after it
became clear the 194-nation summit was in danger of failure.
It promised $100 billion for poor nations that risk bearing the brunt of
the global warming fallout and set a commitment to limit global warming
to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The summit outcome has been widely criticised however, with
recriminations among many of the participants.
A dispute between Britain and China worsened on December 22.
Claims by Britain's climate change minister Ed Miliband that China had
blocked a deal in Copenhagen were aimed at "escaping obligations and
fomenting discord" among developing countries, China's foreign ministry
said.
Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told state news agency Xinhua that China
refuted claims made by Miliband in an article in Monday's Guardian
newspaper.
Miliband wrote that China vetoed attempts to give legal force to the
accord reached at the climate summit. It also blocked an agreement on
reductions in global emissions, he said.
"We did not get an agreement on 50% reductions in global emissions by
2050 or on 80% reductions by developed countries," Miliband wrote.
"Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of
developed and the vast majority of developing countries." China's
foreign ministry slammed the comments. "Such an attack was made in order
to shirk the obligations of developed countries to their developing
counterparts and foment discord among developing countries," Jiang was
quoted saying. "But the attempt was doomed to fail." China stuck out at
the summit against pressure to allow international verification of
carbon emission cutting efforts.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blamed the United States
for the failure of the talks, saying Obama was not prepared to make
sufficient emissions cuts.
"The United States is proposing a reduction of four% from the date fixed
by the Kyoto Protocol (1990). That is too little," Lula said on his
weekly radio program.
This led other countries to avoid their "commitments to the objectives
(of reducing carbon dioxide emissions) and financial commitments," Lula
added.
Brazil pledged voluntary carbon emission cuts of 36 to 39% based on
projected 2020 output and urged rich countries to help poorer countries
foot the bill.
Obama did not offer deeper emissions cuts than the United States has
already put on the table, or specific figures on how much Washington
will pay to bankroll the climate change fight.
Washington has already said it will not budge on its offer of curbing US
carbon emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020--less than EU offers
but as much as the US political climate will bear.
Hopes for a new deal now rest on a summit in Mexico City in December
2010 which could come into effect from 2013, after the current Kyoto
Protocol expires.
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