World leaders moving backwards on climate change

|PIC1|The latest round of climate change talks ended in Bangkok last week without any consensus between the world’s developed and developing nations on issues like carbon emission cuts and financial assistance for developing countries to help them adapt to climate change.

The two-week long talks had been intended to set the foundation for a major UN climate change summit in Copenhagen in December that will seek to agree a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol, the existing climate agreement that binds governments to cutting their greenhouse emissions.

Christian Aid said, however, that the failure of the Bangkok talks had jeopardised years of hard-won progress and that the US and other rich nations were guilty of “seeking to destroy” the Kyoto Protocol.

It warns that efforts towards a new climate change agreement being spearheaded by the US and EU would put new obligations on developing countries as well as developed ones and take years to come into force.

“Instead of moving towards a Copenhagen deal which would make the existing climate agreement more effective, we are moving backwards and into grave danger,” said Nelson Muffuh, Christian Aid’s senior climate advocacy coordinator.

“This could be potentially catastrophic for the poor and the planet. With climate change out of control, poverty will worsen dramatically.”

Christian Aid said that securing a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal in Copenhagen was “a matter of extreme urgency – not politics”.

“We fear that the developed world is out to kill Kyoto,” added Mr Muffuh. “But this is not the time for world leaders to act on short-sighted self-interest – they have a climate emergency on their hands and time is running out for them to create a solution.”