SCANDAL IN HOPENHAGEN?

Copenhagen: Leaked draft deal widens rift between rich and poor nations; Climate talks are in disarray barely days into the summit, putting at risk international unity to fight global warming
John Vidal, 9 December 2009 (UK Guardian)

[Lumumba Di-Aping, Sudanese chairman, G77 plus China group of 132 developing countries:] "The [leaked, so-called Danish text] robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space. It tries to treat rich and poor countries as equal…This text destroys both the UN convention on climate change and the Kyoto protocol. This is aimed at producing a new treaty, a new legal initiative that throws away the basis of [differing] obligations between the poorest and most wealthy nations in the world…"

"The [Danish] text is a draft proposal for the final political agreement that should be signed by national leaders…at the end of the Copenhagen summit on 18 December. It was prepared in secret by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" but understood to include the US and Denmark."

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[Yvo de Boer, Executive Director, UN FCCC:] "This was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations. The only formal texts in the UN process are the ones tabled by the chairs of this Copenhagen conference at the behest of the parties [involved]."

"But the representatives of developing nations felt betrayed by the intent of the proposals in the draft…The existing [Kyoto Protocol] is the only global agreement that legally obliges rich countries to reduce their emissions…[but has seemed vulnerable to being voided] since the climate negotiations were effectively taken over by [the developed countries and] conducted outside the UN, the only forum in which poor countries feel they are equally represented."

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"The text is now likely to be withdrawn because of its reception by China, India and many other developing countries [in G77]…Few numbers are included in the text, because these would be filled in later after negotiation by world leaders…[I]t does seek to hold global temperature rises to 2C, the safe limit according to scientists, and it mentions the sum of $10bn a year in aid to help poor countries cope with climate change, starting in 2012…[T]he G77 reaction was seen by some developed world analysts as an exaggerated but fundamentally correct response to the way that the US, the UK and other rich countries have sought to negotiate…Over the next days several new texts will emerge…[The rich countries can expect fresh assaults from the Africa group of countries, the least developed countries group, and the association of small island states]."

[Lumumba Di-Aping, Sudanese chairman, G77 plus China group of 132 developing countries:] "We will not walk out of the talks at this late hour, because we will not allow the failure of Copenhagen. But we will not sign an inequitable deal; we will not accept a deal that condemns 80% of the world population to further suffering and injustice. We call ordinary people to put the utmost pressure on politicians to come to their senses…"