World: Climate Campaigners from Developing Nations Declare Proposal Inadequate
By Henry Neondo
DOHA-- In the dying hours of the 18th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place in Doha, Qatar, hundreds of climate justice campaigners occupied the conference centre halls to call on countries to a draft text meant to define COP18.
After two weeks of negotiations, the final "Ministers” texts emerged that are, according to LIdy Nacpil of Jubilee South Asia Pacific: "A million miles from where we need to be to even have a small chance of preventing runaway climate change."
Nacpil is based in the Philippines which is currently experiencing devastation as a result of Typhoon Bopha.
"As civil society movements, we are saying that this is not acceptable." Ms Nacpil said.
"We cannot go back to our countries and tell them that we allowed this to happen, that we condemned our own future. We cannot go back to the Philippines, to our dead, to our homeless, to our outrage, and tell them that we accepted this." Ms Nacpil said.
Asad Rehman, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth International also dismissed the proposals advocated by the European Union on 'Kyoto2.
"It's an empty shell, an insult to our futures. There is literally no point in countries signing up to this sham of a deal, which will lock the planet in to many more years of inaction." Mr Rehman said.
"What the world and its people need is more urgent action on cutting climate pollution, more help to those transforming their economies and more help to those already facing climate impacts. This text fails on every count". Mr Rehman said.
Analysis of the proposed texts reveals that the 'deal' on the table has failed to cut emissions. The analysis shows that no country has increased their emission cut targets.
Many developing countries are demanding cuts of 40-50% by 2020 to have a chance of limiting temperature rise to no higher than 1.5C. Without this, we face runaway climate change and far greater global temperature rises.
According to the analysis, rich countries have failed to make any collective financial commitments to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change and make the transition to a low emissions future.
“Instead of strengthening the regulations and rules for reducing emissions, the texts promote business interests and false solutions such as more carbon markets, despite the evidence of the failure of the existing ones,” says the analysis by climate change activists.
"Things have got so bad that the negotiations are impossible to rescue. We cannot accept what is on the table. We call on countries to stand strong and reject the texts," said Kwesi W. Obeng of the Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.
"Our message to the world is build the transformation of our food and energy systems in every country, deliver real national emissions cuts and build a global climate justice movement that will hold world leaders accountable to their citizens and not the polluters," said Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Alliance.
The campaigners put the blame for failure squarely on the shoulders rich industrialised countries, such as the US, Canada and Japan, who have refused to sign up to deep climate climate pollution cuts and outright rejected a new commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
Negotiations will continue in the coming hours with all countries given the opportunity to accept or reject the Ministers' proposals. Observers are unsure if agreement will be possible.