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African civil society statement on Barcelona climate change talks

10 November 2009, Public Agenda
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200911091526.html

Accra:   We, the African civil society under the Platform of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, condemn deliberate efforts by developed countries to kill the Kyoto Protocol, and effectively killing the hopes for climate justice. The signals towards Copenhagen are a worrying repeat of the past: in the original negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol countries endlessly accommodated the needs of particular parties, only to find that these same parties were, in the end, not willing to ratify.

Should we allow this to happen once more? The future of the climate negotiations - and indeed the future of vulnerable people and the planet - cannot be held hostage by the politics and interests of one particular state. We cannot allow the political ambition of the international climate regime to be sabotaged by recalcitrant positions.

We express solidarity with our delegates who at this meeting sought to focus the negotiations on the core of Kyoto Protocol negotiations - developed countries' emission reduction commitments beyond 2012 - and we continue to urge them to put pressure on on Annex 1 parties to honor their existing obligations by implementing, rather than ending, the Kyoto Protocol.

We share their concern and frustrations about the lack of progress, and express our shock that these actions have been misreported in the media as "walking out" or "blocking" the negotiations rather than "focusing" and "accelerating" the negotiations on delegates' fundamental task.

Renegotiating the form and principles of the Kyoto Protocol to allow for the needs of one country, that has been reticent to come on board for 13 years, will lead us to an outcome that falls far short of the bare minimum of what is required to ensure the lives and livelihoods of billions of people who are facing the wrath of climate change. This we cannot afford.

So far commitments from the industrialized countries have been way below the scientifically acceptable reduction of 40-45 per cent and 85 - 90 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2020 and 2050 respectively. Unless deeper greenhouse emission reductions are met, the planet is in a real danger of destruction.

It is highly doubtable that Annex 1 parties are genuinely committed to resolving the issue of numbers and fundamental issues being raised by developing countries. There seems to be deliberate attempts to frustrate the Africa Group in their strong demands. What seems to have been offered is either a bad deal or a no deal!

Already two key deadlines have been missed: in April, the AWG-KP was scheduled to conclude on the aggregate figures for Annex 1 emission reduction; and in June individual Annex 1 contribution to these aggregate figures.

In our assessment, Barcelona climate change talks are ending without much progress made towards a fair deal to Copenhagen. It is the same endless game of musical chairs and shifting of goalposts. New and confusing concept like "politically binding agreement" or "legally binding political commitments" have been invented to confuse the negotiations. But more specifically, we wish to highlight three tragic outcomes of Barcelona which are clear signals of Annex I countries deliberate attempts to derail a match towards an equitable and effective deal in Copenhagen:

* The Danish Prime Minister's statement that "Our end goal is an internationally legally binding treaty for when the Kyoto treaty comes to an end in 2012." This reflect a clear bias against the demands of developing countries for the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and are unacceptable.

The European Union's call for a "single legally binding instrument...that builds on the Kyoto Protocol and incorporates all its essentials, as an outcome from Copenhagen in December 2009. This is, in effect, indirectly calling for the end of the Kyoto Protocol, thus avoiding legally binding obligations to agree to a second commitment period after 2012.

The UNFCCC Secretariat's misrepresentation of facts: The secretariat has now become a partisan player by publishing documents that falsely state that "the existing legally binding agreement which governs carbon emissions - the Kyoto Protocol - expires in 2012." By this misrepresentation of facts, the Secretariat is derogating from its responsibility of "creating and maintaining necessary conditions for an early, effective and efficient implementation of the Kyoto Protocol," including its second commitment period, reflecting a clear bias against the position of developing countries.

PACJA rejects the idea of lowering ambitions for Copenhagen from what the Bali Action Plan arrived in COP 13 mandated. The attempts by EU and other developed countries to arrive at a political declaration in Copenhagen, as opposed to a legally binding post 2012 agreement shall be resisted.

The science is clear and urgent action is demanded of the world if we are to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people not only in Africa, but also in other parts of the world.

In this regard, PACJA calls on the:

• Negotiating parties to conclude the negotiations in order to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable communities, majority of whom are found in Africa,
• Industrialized countries to agree to deep domestic emission cuts and massive transfer of technology for adaptation and transition to low-carbon development trajectory.