INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES SABOTAGING TALKS THROUGH INERTIA

Oxfam Ireland Press Release
12 June 2009

G8 Leaders must step up to save a climate deal

Rich countries' inertia is sabotaging a climate deal and abandoning millions of the world's poorest people to a desperate future said Oxfam on the final day of international climate talks in Bonn today.

 

Together with over 450 development, environmental and social organisations from across the world the international agency called for world leaders, meeting at the G8 Summit in Italy next month, to come to Copenhagen ready to strike a deal that will prevent a human catastrophe.

 

The machinery of the talks is working but a lack of political will from industrialised countries has blocked progress and undermined poor country confidence in the negotiations - only a political commitment for ambitious action at the highest level can save the talks, said Oxfam.  

 

Antonio Hill, Oxfam’s Policy Advisor, said: “In the fight against climate change we need the generals on the battlefield. World leaders meeting at the G8 in Italy must promise to come to Copenhagen ready to strike a deal that will prevent a human catastrophe.”

 

“Poor countries have been left stranded – millions of people face, hunger, disease and disaster but the countries that created the nightmare are refusing to lift a finger to prevent it becoming a reality”, said Hill.  “Poor countries were dealt another blow this week when Japan announced a pathetically low target for cutting emissions by just 8 percent on 1990 levels by 2020.”

 

In the final session developing countries sharply criticised industrialised countries’ contribution to the talks. Over the last two weeks rich nations have failed to set an overall target for mid term emission reductions – one of the main aims of the meeting – or put forward concrete proposals on funding to help poor countries reduce emissions and adapt to a changing climate. “Rich country delegates have spent two weeks talking but have done nothing on the issues that really matter. Rich countries may be kidding themselves they are working towards a deal but they are not kidding anyone else”, said Hill.

 

Despite the failure of rich countries to engage in Bonn there are a huge number of proposals on the table – some of which could still add up to a fair and adequate deal. “There are two deals in the hundreds of pages of the negotiating text sitting with governments today. One will secure our future – the other will bring disaster. World leaders need to get a grip on the talks to ensure the right deal is made in Copenhagen”, said Hill. 

 

With just six months to Copenhagen we now need urgent action from governments around the world, including Ireland, to put the talks at the top of their agenda.

 

“Even at a time of a financial crisis, the climate crisis has to be at the top of the government's agenda, the problem and urgency is that serious. The recent announcement of a climate change bill by Environment Minister John Gormley is very welcome. The government needs to deliver on the bill and put the climate talks at the top of their agenda. We're now on a climate countdown. There is no time to lose”, said Colin Roche of Oxfam Ireland

 

Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, recently announced that the Green Party would be seeking a climate bill to be part of a revised Programme for Government.

 

On Saturday, June 13th from 12pm. the demonstration “Climate Countdown to Copenhagen” will take place and send out a clear message that time is running out for world leaders to agree a fair and safe global deal. Using specially printed newspapers to form a giant human hourglass, campaigners in this choreographed event will also spell out the words 6 MONTHS and ACT NOW on the beach.The Climate Countdown event is being organised by Stop Climate Chaos – the Irish coalition campaigning to stop runaway climate change – of which Oxfam is a member.

 

 

For more information or interviews, please contact:

Oxfam will have spokespeople at the talks from Bangladesh, South Africa, US, UK, Germany and Australia and can arrange interviews. For more information and to arrange an interview contact:

 

Anna Mitchell - in Bonn from Sunday 7 June to Saturday 13 June: + 44 77 96 99 32 88

Mirjam Hägele - in Bonn from Tuesday 9 June to Saturday 13 June: + 49 177 8809977

 

Oxfam is a founder member of the 'tck tck tck' campaign.  The campaign brings together an unprecedented alliance of faith groups, NGOs, trade unions and individuals. As world leaders prepare to strike a climate deal in Copenhagen in December, and aims to harness the voices of people from around the globe to demand an ambitious, fair and binding climate deal which reflects the latest science.

 

Oxfam Ireland is a member of Stop Climate Chaos. Stop Climate Chaos is a coalition of civil society organisations campaigning to ensure Ireland plays its part in preventing runaway climate change. Current Stop Climate Chaos members are Action Aid, Afri, Christian Aid, Comhlámh, Concern, Cultivate, Dublin Friends of the Earth, Eco-Congregation, Eco-Unesco, Feasta, Friends of the Earth, Gorta, Just Forests, Kimmage Development Studies Centre, Latin America Solidarity Centre, Methodist Church of Ireland – Council of Social Responsibility, Mountmellick Environmental Group, National Youth Council of Ireland Presentation Centre of Policy and Systemic Change, Progressio Ireland, Sustain West Cork, An Taisce, Trócaire, VITA and Voice and Oxfam Ireland.

 

Analysis of the talks

 

Virtually all the different countries’ proposals for what needs to go into the deal are out on the table - ahead of a 17 June timeline for submission of proposals. However, the real negotiations on which proposals stay in and which are removed did not get off the ground. 

 

Negotiations in Bonn may continue late into the night if delegates can’t decide whether the UN should edit down the hundreds of proposals on the table into a manageable negotiating text for Bangkok in September – essential if a deal is to be agreed by the end of the year.

 

MITIGATION

 

A key aim of the talks in Bonn was to set a target for rich country emissions reductions – this has not happened.  Rich countries' commitments currently add up to between 7 and 15 percent cut in emissions by 2020 (relative to 1990 levels) and would put the world on track for over 3 degrees of warming.  It is also significantly below the target range of 25–40 percent that rich countries backed one and a half years ago when negotiations on a post Kyoto deal began in Bali.

 

The failure to set an aggregate target, coupled with Japan's announcement to cut emissions by just 8 percent will seriously undermine developing country confidence in the talks and hamper progress on the negotiations (Japan’s target in the current commitment period up till 2012 is 6 percent below 1990 levels).  Developing countries have said they will not start negotiating on a deal until rich countries set a collective target and over 40 developing countries – including South Africa and India – have put forward a proposal today which outlines how much individual rich countries must cut their emissions by in order to deliver an overall reduction in emissions of 40 percent on 1990 levels by 2020.

 

The developing country proposal mirrors the findings of a report launched by Oxfam this week which also calls for at least a 40 percent cut.  In order to deliver their fair share of the effort needed to reach this target Japan, which announced an 8 per cent reduction this week, must deliver a 56 percent reduction, according to Oxfam. Europe must cut emissions by 44 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 – it is currently committed to a 20–30 percent reduction. Russia, which has yet to set a mid term target, must deliver a 20 percent reduction in emissions. Australia, which may commit to a 25 percent cut in emissions, would need to deliver reductions of 40 percent and Canada, whose commitments are equivalent to a 3 per cent drop in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020, would need to deliver a cut of 43 percent. The US must deliver 45 percent cut.

 

FINANCE

 

Rich countries' performance on finance has been even more lacklustre despite it being a crunch issue at the talks. Rich countries have failed to put a figure on the scale of the finance that is needed to help developing countries adapt to a changing climate and scale back their emissions; they have failed to come up with any concrete suggestions on how the funds should be raised or how they should be governed and managed.

 

Roughly half of the reductions which need to be made by 2020 must be made in poor countries and the majority of developing countries will not be able to achieve emissions reductions without significant financial incentives from rich countries. 

 

The G77 group of developing countries calls for rich countries to contribute between 0.5 and 1 percent of their GDP towards mitigation and adaptation action in the developing world. While a proposal from Mexico that would make finance flows dependent on the willingness of individual countries to deliver on their funding commitments is gaining momentum. This is a risky strategy given that rich countries are notoriously bad at delivering money promised for international aid in the past.

 

Oxfam is calling for the establishment of a ‘Global Mitigation and Finance Mechanism’ that would use money generated in the sale of carbon permits to guarantee a steady supply of funds. At least $150 billion is needed every year to fund both adaptation and mitigation action in developing countries. 

 

ADAPTATION

 

Industrialised countries continue to push for existing institutions – such as the World Bank – to manage adaptation finance instead of the new arrangements developing countries say are needed. They also opposed immediate measures to tackle the urgent adaptation needs of the world’s most vulnerable countries and opposed proposals that would address the needs of people forced to migrate as a result of climate impacts. Developing countries complained that rich countries are more interested in the planning and implementation of adaptation then finding the money to pay for it.

 

EMISSIONS FROM SHIPPING AND AVIATION

 

Australia put forward a proposal for emissions from international aviation and shipping to be part of an international climate deal. Australia’s intervention at the climate change talks in Bonn called for regulation of aviation and shipping emissions ‘without discrimination’ between countries. However, it made no reference to the impact this might have on its small island neighbours, who depend heavily on air and sea links while emitting only a minuscule fraction of the emissions of their richer neighbour.

 

Tanzania noted that the proposal failed to recognise that income raised from the mechanism should be directed to poor developing countries.  An agreement on the proposal is unlikely without an explicit agreement that any income raised will go to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

 

Oxfam welcomed the move to include all emissions in the talks but said that poor small islands nations who rely on shipping and aviation for their survival must be exempt and any funds raised from the scheme must be used to help poor countries adapt to a changing climate and reduce their emissions.

 

 

 

 

Notes to Editor

Oxfam Ireland is an independent member of Oxfam International- a group of thirteen non-governmental agencies dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world.

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