From left, Ria Voorhaar, Communication Director, Climate Action Network International (CAN), Liz Gallagher, Senior Policy Advisor at E3G, Steve Herz, Senior Attorney at Sierra Club, and Wael Hmaidan, CAN Lebanon, at a press conference at the QNCC yesterday. Salim Matramkot
By Satish Kanady
DOHA: As just hours are left for the wrap-up of the Doha Climate Change conference, NGOs, development organisations and civil society pressure groups are worried ‘whether Doha was heading to the right trajectory’.
Six of the largest environmental and development organisations in the world said yesterday “Doha is on brink of disaster’.
Rich industrialised countries have spent the two weeks in Doha removing even the bare minimum of what would be required to have an agreement that actually meets the acid test of climate action on emission cuts, public climate financing and action on loss and damage, they said in a joint appeal to the global political leadership.
The signatories include ActionAid, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Oxfam and WWF.
The gap between the talks and the reality was highlighted by an open letter signed by the environmental and development organisation to the political leaderships.
“Governments, rich and poor, must not agree to a ‘deal’ that keeps the planet on track for 4 degree Celsius and even higher levels of warming, condemning millions of our people to death, starvation, and forced migration,” they said.
The climate talks are at a crucial juncture with key elements stalling despite the arrival of ministers yesterday, Wael Hmaidan, director of Climate Action Network-International said.
Despite expectations from the new civil society movement around climate change in the region, the political leadership has so far failed to materialise. There are two days left of the negotiations, so the presidency needs to pledge to reduce carbon emissions and put money for climate finance on the table to lift the political energy in the talks, Hmaidan said.
“Further, the presidency needs to bring together countries on the unresolved issues in these talks in a way that raises the ambition of climate action globally.”
Liz Gallagher, senior policy advisor from E3G, said the shape of a deal was starting to emerge with consensus being sought around the crunch issues on the Kyoto Protocol, but the long term cooperative track (LCA) was a mess.
“The disorder in the LCA track jeopardises the entire Doha deal as well as progress toward an inclusive treaty in 2015,” Gallagher said. “We run the risk of having a zombie outcome here in Doha.”
“This is an urgent plea to ministers to roll up their sleeves and start driving the UN talks forward,” she said.
Steve Herz, from the Sierra Club, said the main blockage in the LCA was climate finance - which was crucial to achieving a deal which was acceptable to the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The US is trying to prevent discussion on how the countries would get to the $100bn a year target.
The Peninsula
