UN climate negotiators who met in Barcelona this week discussed a formula for securing agreement among 192 nations on tackling climate change ahead of next month’s major conference in Copenhagen.
European nations downplayed expectations for a legal treaty to come out of next month’s summit. Instead, negotiators were working to hammer out a political agreement that would allow rich nations to make commitments that are not legally binding. However the head of the UN climate secretariat, Ivo de Boer says that any decision accepted at Copenhagen would be morally binding.
The chairperson of the group of 77 nations and China, Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, of Sudan, described their efforts as an unfinished piece of work, well below what is needed.
African countries boycotted the first day but joined the meeting after winning promises for more in depth talks on how much rich nations need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The African nations say industrial nations should reduce emission by at least 40% by 2020. The walkout by some 50 african countries at the Barcelona talks sent a clear signal that developing countries would be tough negotiators at next month’s climate conference.
A new study published this week says the glaciers on Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro have lost 85% of the ice they had in 1912. A quarter of the ice present in the year 2000 had gone by 2007. The study, in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cited Earth’s rising temperatures as at least a partial cause. It said similar changes have occurred at Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, as well as at glaciers in south America and the Himalayas.