The long standing dispute between rich and poor countries regarding greenhouse gas emission targets, accelerating money for climate finance and taking responsibility for loss and damage cause by climate change has stretched the UN climate talks into overtime at the Polish capital of Warsaw.
Negotiators from 195 countries are trying to lay foundation for the roadmap to Paris where a new climate agreement will be signed after two years. But high level observers and negotiators closely following the closed door meeting for the last two weeks say that there is little to expect from the final rounds of “give and take” in the last few hours.
“Everyone is not going to get everything they expect, so we are still trying to see what is the best we can achieve at the end of this talk,” says a high ranking UN observer on the condition of anonymity.
The climate talks which began on a highly charged note in the shadow of the devastation caused by typhoon Haiyan in Philippines was dubbed as the “finance COP”. With virtually no money on the table for vulnerable poor countries to adapt to the effects of climate change, the delegates from the developing countries and the civil society are still pressing for the developed countries to come clean on providing finance while maintaining ambitious reduction of green house gases. In 2009 developed nations agreed to raise climate aid to $100 billion a year from 2020 from an annual $10 billion for 2010-12. But after providing the initial fund of $10 billion until 2012, the developed countries haven’t pledged further climate aid citing economic slowdowns in their countries.
The most contentious issue so far however has been regarding the “loss and damage” which the Doha Declaration in 2012 had decided to work on in Warsaw. Until Friday evening, the corridors of the National Stadium was abuzz that the negotiators had agreed on a mechanism on loss and damage but it was too soon to say if it addressed the demands of the countries prone to the risks of climate change. “We know that a mechanism to deal with loss and damage is in place but there is a sharp disagreement over the language used in it,” says an NGO representative working closely with the negotiators.
COP19 was meant to be a roadmap to Paris by finalising a timeline for the next two years but delegates fear that the talks in Warsaw has slim chances. “We still have few more hours with us to come to an agreement, we need to find a middle ground to ensure success in Paris and most importantly secure the future of our environment,” says Prakash Mathema, the chairperson of Least Developing Countries who have been pushing the developed countries for ambitious emission reduction targets and an effective mechanism for loss and damage.
As the final leg of the high level ministerial meeting gets underway at the National Stadium, everyone outside can only hope that tonight’s decision will be a step in the right direction to achieve what the countries from around the world had decided 19 years ago, safeguarding the Earth for the future generation.
Bhrikuti Rai in Warsaw