Activists walk out of UN climate talks

[Buster's Uncle]

Activists walk out of UN climate talks
Associated Press
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and KARL RITTER 2 hours ago



Members of non-governmental organizations walking out of the U.N. talks on global warming held at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 to show their impatience with the government negotiators, who, the movements say, are making no progress in their task of laying foundations for a new climate deal. The talks are scheduled to close on Friday. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)



WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hundreds of environmental activists walked out of U.N. climate talks on Thursday, saying they were deeply disappointed by the lack of results with just one day remaining.

Wearing "Polluters talk, we walk" T-shirts, the activists streamed out of Warsaw's National Stadium, where rich and poor countries were arguing over who should do what to fight global warming.

The two-week session in the Polish capital was never expected to produce any big decisions or breakthroughs, but the protesters said in a statement that the talks were "on track to deliver virtually nothing."

Negotiations have been bogged down by disputes over financing to help poor countries develop their economies in a cleaner way than the West did and cope with rising sea levels, desertification and other impacts of global warming.

Meanwhile, emerging economies including China and Brazil appeared to resist a European push for setting a 2014 deadline for when countries should put forth commitments for a new climate agreement, which is supposed to be adopted a year later.

The level of progress is seen as a possible indicator of the world's chances of reaching a deal in 2015. That's the new watershed year in the U.N.-led process after a 2009 summit in Copenhagen ended in discord.



Members of civil society movements are walking out of the U.N. talks on global warming


"If we go with the spirit of the lack of urgency that we see in these talks, we are headed for another disaster in Paris in 2015 and we need to avert it at all cost," Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo told The Associated Press.

"We cannot afford to get it wrong again in 2015," he said.

Environmental groups from around the world attend the annual talks as observers. They often stage colorful protests in the hallways to urge negotiators to step up the pace. One group called the Climate Action Network names a "fossil of the day" in a daily mock award ceremony to shame countries they see as blocking the negotiations.

In Warsaw, some activists joined Filipino delegate Naderev Sano's fast during the conference in support of the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Sano said his delegation shared the protesters' "anger and frustration" at the lack of "political will" at the negotiations.

Poland's Marcin Korolec, the president of the talks, said he didn't share the climate activists' assessment of the negotiations.

"We have achieved considerable progress on climate finance," Korolec said. "The talks about the shape of a new global agreement were also held throughout the night. I am convinced that we are getting closer and closer to a final success."

Some activists rejected the walkout.

"I share the anger of the NGOs that walked out and agree with the spirit of what they have done," said Mohamed Adow, a senior climate change adviser at Christian Aid. "But I am committed to this process, which is not at fault, and want to be here to fight for what can be achieved in these last hours and to hold the rich countries to account."

The U.N. climate talks were launched in 1992 following scientific warnings that humans were warming the planet by emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The next round of the annual talks is set to be held in Lima, Peru.


http://news.yahoo.com/activists-walk-un-climate-talks-160228376.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Turmoil at climate talks as blame game heats up
Associated Press
By KARL RITTER November 20, 2013 2:45 PM



United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rides a bike made of bamboo during a meeting with the Ghana Bamboo Bike initiative, at the UN Climate Conference in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)



WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Rich and poor nations are struggling with a yawning rift at the U.N. climate talks as developing countries look for new ways to make developed countries accept responsibility for global warming — and pay for it.

With two days left, there was commotion in the Warsaw talks Wednesday after negotiators for developing nations said they walked out of a late-night meeting on compensation for the impact of global warming.

"We do not see a clear commitment of developed parties to reach an agreement," said Rene Orellana, head of Bolivia's delegation.

U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern downplayed the dispute, saying American negotiators who had attended the meeting were surprised to hear of a walk-out.

"The meeting ended with everyone leaving," Stern told reporters.

Contrasting views on what's been said and done in closed discussions is not unusual in the slow-moving U.N. effort to curb global warming, which has often been held back by mistrust between rich and poor countries. The talks in Warsaw on a new global climate deal in 2015 have been going on since Nov. 11.



President of the UN Climate Change Conference Marcin Korolec speaks to the press in Warsaw, Poland


The question of who's to blame for global warming is central for developing countries, who say they should receive financial support from rich nations to make their economies greener, adapt to climate shifts and cover the costs of unavoidable damage caused by warming temperatures.

Also, they say the fact that rich nations, historically speaking, have released the biggest amounts of heat-trapping CO2 by burning fossil fuels for more than 200 years means they need to take the lead in reducing current emissions.

In Warsaw, developing nations are coming up with fresh ways to make their point. Brazil has proposed creating a formula to calculate historical blame.

"They must know how much they are actually responsible ... for the essential problem of climate change," Brazilian negotiator Raphael Azeredo said.

Developed nations blocked that proposal, however, saying the world should look at current and future emissions when dividing up the responsibility for global warming.



United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rides a bike made of bamboo


China, considered a developing nation at these talks, overtook the U.S. to become the world's biggest carbon polluter in the last decade, and developing countries as a whole now have higher emissions than the developed world.

To focus only on past emissions "seems to us as very partial and not very accurate," Stern, the U.S. envoy, said.

The U.S. wants to get rid of the U.N.'s current division between developed and developing nations. Stern noted that a 2007 study showed that by 2020, the all-time emissions of developing countries will exceed those of the developed world, due to emissions growth in large emerging economies like China and India.

Those countries are trying to develop in a cleaner way but say it's unfair to expect them to abstain from the dirty fuels that built Western economies into powerhouses with high living standards.

Finding a way to share the burden of emissions cuts in an equitable manner is one of the top challenges for the climate negotiators, whose overall goal is to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F) since preindustrial times.



United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, right


Scientists say the global average temperature has already risen by 0.8 C (1.4 F), resulting in melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other climate impacts.

The point of measuring the responsibility for these climate changes is to establish benchmarks to measure against when countries present their national emissions proposals for the new global agreement, explained Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy group.

"How do you evaluate the proposals against each other? If, as I assume, we fall short, who needs to do more and why?" Meyer said.

The Warsaw conference is supposed to lay the foundation for a 2015 climate agreement, but it was unclear Wednesday whether countries would be able to agree on basic stepping stones, including a timeline for when commitments should be presented.

Climate finance is also divisive issue, with rich countries being urged to step up their financial support to help developing countries transfer to clean energy sources and adapt to climate change.



A group of Solidarity trade unionists from a coal mine, supporting the coal mining industry protest


A key dispute in Warsaw revolves around a proposed "loss and damage" mechanism that developing countries say is needed to help them cope with climate disasters that cannot be avoided.

They have pointed to the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Single storms cannot be conclusively linked to climate change but rising sea levels can make them more destructive.

The U.S. and other rich countries say "loss and damage" is related to climate adaptation and doesn't need to be dealt with as a separate issue. It was those talks that developing countries said they walked out of early Wednesday.

The government of Poland, which has been criticized at the talks for hosting a coal summit at the same time, stirred things up further Wednesday by replacing Environment Minister Marcin Korolec, who is presiding over the climate conference. Korolec told reporters the move would not affect his duties as conference president.


http://news.yahoo.com/turmoil-climate-talks-blame-game-heats-130645987.html