Europa Newswire
Photo: Luiz Rampelotto
10 December 2009
By Mary Slosson
New York - With tensions between rich and poor countries running high at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in the wake of a Danish draft resolution leaking to the press, the willingness of industrialized countries - particularly the United States and the United Kingdom - to give poorer countries a fair deal is being scrutinized.
The Danish text, published in full on The Guardian’s website, proposes lower emissions caps for developing countries than industrialized nations, and would transfer authority over regulation of carbon emissions from the United Nations to a multilateral financial organization like the World Bank.
The text is purported to have been authored
by representatives of Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States,
and other developed nations. G-77 countries have expressed outrage
over the text, with some threatening to walk out of the negotiations.
Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, spoke at a United Nations press conference and called the “choice between the UN and the World Bank” as the regulatory agency responsible for monitoring and enforcement of any agreement to come out of Copenhagen a “false choice” and emphasized that “there is going to be a role for the UN and a role for the World Bank and a role for regional banks and bilateral agencies.”
“The last thing we need is everybody
doing the same thing and fighting over the same pot of money,” said
Thomas. He emphasized that, “the work that we do with developing
countries” must have “a clear sense of what each bilateral does,
what each multilateral does, and make sure there are no overlaps.”
“Bilateral donors and UN agencies to have the discussion on who does what and who really has the expertise to best help,” Thomas said.
The United Kingdom will prioritize it’s climate change aid based on three principles outlined by Thomas: deforestation prevention, renewable energy technologies, and climate-related disaster preparedness.
250 million people are currently projected to be affected by climate change-related natural disasters; the UK expects that number to increase 375 million, delineating a clear need for humanitarian assistance.
Thomas spoke with Europa Newswire and said that, “developing countries are going to need immediate finance, so our Prime Minister [Gordon Brown] has put some ideas on the table in terms of a fast track fund” to get climate change mitigation programs for developing countries “up and running.”
Thomas stated that it is, “clear that developing countries are going to need additional long-term finance over and above what they’re getting at the moment for development.” While the United Kingdom would be “happy to allocate additional resources,” Thomas made it clear that the UK, “will put a 10 percent cap on [money from] our aid budget” being applied towards lessening the impact of climate change for developing countries.
With the furor over the Danish text continuing to persist, and developing countries worried that they might not get a fair deal on climate change, the degree to which advanced industrialized countries like the United Kingdom are willing to compromise during the Copenhagen negotiations will determine whether the international community will continue to accept the status quo or signal a shift towards cooperation to prevent climate disaster.
