In a seemingly unprecedented move 134 developing countries accused Daniel Reifsnyder, the chair and his co-chair at Bonn, Germany of attempting to bulldoze the 20 page long draft agreement down their throat in an attempt to favour developed countries and practicing climate apartheid. This happened on the
first day (Monday, 19th October) of the talks underway. These talks are scheduled to conclude on 23rd October.
Under fire from these developing countries, the
two co-chairs agreed to incorporate their demands in the draft text of the proposed climate agreement. The developing countries were annoyed at the omission of their concerns from the draft text of the agreement. these concerns were articulated by Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko, the South African delegate on behalf of 134 countries (G 77 & China Group). This assumes significance ahead of the November 30th -December 11th summit in Paris.
This unequivocally signals that it is quite unlikely that rich countries will succeed in extinguishing differentiation between developed and developing countries in the final climate agreement given the fact that the former have historical responsibility to do more than the latter. The way U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reacted to it cannot be deemed healthy because when 134 countries speak in one voice it transcends national boundaries. His diagnosis about "very narrow national perspectives" is applicable to rich countries who are engaging with climate issue as if it is a national issue and not a global and inter-generational issue. The civil society review underlines how the rich countries are displaying poverty of ambition to combat climate crisis.
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