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.
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Several delegates said they were angry that an 11-day-old text — badly out of date, given the fast-moving pace of the climate negotiations — had caused such a kerfuffle.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.”
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