Sunday Times 2
With rich-poor split, climate talks run into overtime
View(s):LIMA, Dec 13, (AFP) – UN climate talks went deep into overtime on Friday as negotiators struggled to break a deadlock between rich and developing nations on the underpinnings of a world carbon-cutting pact.
A years-old dispute over sharing responsibility for curbing greenhouse gases saw the 12-day negotiations enter a familiar phase of poker-like holdout, darkening prospects for the ambitious environmental accord.
Hours after the scheduled close of the session, officials and ministers were engaged in frantic haggling over a draft outlining a variety of country approaches — trying to whittle it down to a consensus text.
“We are almost there. We need to make just a final effort,” Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal pleaded with negotiators.
“We need to take political decisions.” Countries disagree on how a principle called “differentiation” will apply in a process next year of declaring national pledges for curbing Earth-warming fossil fuel emissions.
Developing nations insist the West must bear a bigger burden for the carbon cuts, having started decades earlier to pollute their way to prosperity.
But rich countries point the finger at developing giants like China and India furiously burning coal to power their rapid growth.
Developing nations further demand that pledges incorporate not only action on reducing carbon emissions, but also financial help and adaptation aid to shore up their climate defenses.
A format for the pledges must be agreed in the Peruvian capital to allow countries to start their submissions from the first quarter of next year.