CLIMATE TALKS IN BANGKOK HIT WALL ON RICH WORLD FINANCIAL PLEDGE
BANGKOK:An international meeting in Bangkok fell short of its aim of completing fruitful preparations to help an agreement be reached in December on guidelines for implementing the 2015 Paris climate change agreement.
The six-day meeting, which ended on Sunday, was scheduled to step up progress in the battle against rising global carbon emissions by adopting a completed text that could be presented at the COP24 conference in Katowice, Poland, three months from now.
A primary objective of the 2015 Paris agreement, to which 190 nations subscribe, is to limit the global temperature increase by 2100 to less than 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees. But the absence of guidelines for meeting that goal has led to fears that not enough action is being taken.
There have been notable disagreements over fair financing for implementation of the rules by developing countries, and the technical details of their reporting on progress.
Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said on Sunday at the closing press briefing for the Bangkok meeting that progress was made on most issues but nothing was finalised.
Espinosa said there was “limited progress” on the issue of contributions from developed nations to developing countries,
THE MEETING ATTENDED BY REPRESENTATIVES OF MOST COUNTRIES PARTY TO THE PARIS AGREEMENT, AS WELL AS THE UNITED STATES, WHICH HAS ANNOUNCED THAT IT IS PULLING OUT.
adding that she is “hopeful” that future discussions will be productive because of the importance of the issue.
Harjeet Singh, climate policy manager for ActionAid International, said on Sunday that a vital component of the Paris agreement is for wealthy nations to provide financial assistance to developing countries as they fight natural disasters brought by climate change.
But he said wealthy and developed countries “led by the United States and including countries such as Australia, Japan and even the European Union” refused to clearly show “how much money they are going to provide and how that is going to be counted.”
Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US-based activist group, said advocacy for the developing countries was led at the meeting by China, but was also supported by others, including India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.