Negotiators at the UN climate marathon tried to steer into calmer waters yesterday after developing countries blasted an early draft accord as favoring rich carbon emitters and sidelining the poor.
“We should stay on course, we need a legally binding outcome that has strong content that preserves the planet and protects the most vulnerable,” said Dessima Williams, representing the Association of Small Island States badly threatened by climate change.
“That's our agenda, that's our mandate, everything else is distraction,” she said.
PHOTO: AFP
A European official, requesting anonymity, said: “It caused an upset, but we hope the dust is going to settle and we can get down to business.”
The conference, due to climax next Friday with more 110 world leaders attending, was just a day old when the controversy erupted.
A leaked draft of an early preliminary text, proposed by conference chair Denmark, unleashed charges from poorer nations, green groups and aid activists that it had been cooked up in private talks and was skewed in favor of advanced economies.
The text is a “serious violation that threatens the success of the Copenhagen negotiating process,” said Sudan's Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, who heads the Group of 77 bloc of developing countries.
He said poorer nations would not boycott the talks.
“The G77 members will not walk out of this negotiation at this late hour because we can't afford a failure in Copenhagen,” he said.
“However, we will not sign an unequitable deal. We can't accept a deal that condemns 80 percent of the world population to further suffering and injustice,” he said.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer and Denmark tried to ease the row, insisting the text — apparently circulated to a chosen nation or group of nations — was informal and simply aimed at sounding out opinion among parties.
Several delegates said they were angry that an 11-day-old text — badly out of date, given the fast-moving pace of the climate negotiations — had caused such a kerfuffle.
“It's caused a lot of anger among developing countries who fear they are not being included in the informal process,” the European source said.
“It's a storm in a teacup, it's a text that was dredged up from 11 days ago and was covered by the media at the time,” he said.
Another delegate said: “It's an interesting sign of how far some delegations will go to undermine Denmark's efforts to get an ambitious deal.”
Also See: ‘Noughties’ set to be warmest decade
Also See: Signs of deadly change are everywhere
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique