196 countries meet in Lima over climate issues

0

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has expressed pessimism about the outcomes of the just-concluded Climate Talks tagged CoP20 in Lima, describing the failure of developed nations to cede ground on contentious issues beneficial to poor countries as a reminder of ?mis-steps? of previous talks.

196 nations that gathered in Lima agreed that each should present a plan in 2015 for individually reducing greenhouse gas pollution. Demands from poorer countries received little attention at the talks, including a proposal that nations like the United States be more explicit on how billions of dollars will be deployed to developing nations to cope with increasing temperatures, storms and rising seas, among other impacts.
Friends of the Earth International and other global rights groups complained that the US and other developed nations did not do enough, a development that developing nations resisted.
ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo said: ?The Climate talks turned out to be the relay of previous meetings where the same issues were tabled and yet no concrete concessions made by the polluting nations. It?s a shame that the meeting was driven by behind the scene deals and negotiations which were not transparent? 
Ojo explained that the polluting countries that drove the process as was the case in the past talks still rejected issues of adaptation, finance, technology transfer, and capacity building which are key to mitigation of the impacts of their appetite for fossil fuels and other polluting
?Evidently the talks were built on quick sand with no concrete proposal for Paris CoP 21 next year. We have said it time and again that the historical responsibility for the payment of climate debt by developed countries in the provision of finance, technology transfer, and capacity building have been grossly sidestepped and on a wrong footing.? 
He added that ?With the impacts of climate change already being felt in vulnerable communities around the world, the need for immediate action is now, even as the US and other wealthy nations still foot drag on finance to emissions and other critical issues that poor nations have raised.
Poor countries urged the U.S. and nations in Europe to consider strengthening the targets they?ve already announced for cutting greenhouse gases before and after 2020.
They argued that the Lima agreement should require wealthy countries to broaden the scope of their carbon-reduction plans by including measures detailing their financial commitments to helping poor countries and their efforts to assist nations in adapting to the effects of climate change. Instead, the final text ?invites? countries to consider including adaptation measures in their plans.

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here