Copenhagen conference floundering

• 14 years ago (2009-12-15)
• David Flin

Africa 302

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Walk-outs, lack of agreements and disputes have marked the Copenhagen Conference to date.

There have been two big topics: differences over the Kyoto Protocol, and how big and how binding different countries’ commitments will be; and the transfer of money from developed to developing countries to help with the cost of introducing the changes necessary to mitigate against climate change.

African leaders are taking a strong stand on , and have walked out of one of the meetings, causing discussions to be suspended for several hours. Developing countries support because it is legally binding. However, developed countries want a new agreement that includes the – which will never ratify an agreement based on the principles – and big emerging polluters such as , which were not covered under the Kyoto Protocol.

The other make-or-break issue at is funding for developing countries. There is reported to be a new draft agreement on financing, but this does not specify many crucial details, such as criteria for financial transfer, how it will be administered and the amounts of money involved. It leaves space for these details to be resolved at a later date. The negotiator Todd Stern has been reticent on even a short-term financing agreement. One source suggests that the may possibly agree to a financing commitment, but only until 2012, and not to 2020 sought by developing countries. This lack of detail is causing concern to developing nations.