African Nations End Climate Boycott, But Chances of Copenhagen Protocol Slim

Published November 03, 2009 @ 05:58PM PT

African nations have won promises that there will be more in-depth talks about exactly how much rich nations will need to cut their emissions by, ending a boycott of talks. The African countries had been supported by 70 developing countries, arguing that industrialized countries were not making sufficient commitments to cut emissions, with Africa tasking the brunt of drought and flooding blamed on climate change.

The 55 countries were prepared to provoke a major crisis, calling for a suspension of talks unless rich countries agreed to take much more substantial action. It threatened to undermine the Copenhagen Conference's efforts, with Algeria explaining that rich countries were too concerned with political and economic problems in passing legislation, not the damage that climate change is already doing around the world.

That's the good news. The bad? UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon had suggested that a legally binding agreement is unlikely to be signed at Copenhagen — there may be no Copenhagen Protocol to replace Kyoto. This is likely to further infuriate the developed world; with climate change hitting the poorest hardest, they've got a right to be angry.

[Photo credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten - Secretary-General Witnesses Impacts of Climate Change]

Share this Post

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.