In the opening session of new global-warming discussion

Apr 10, 2010 08:52 GMT  ·  By
Global warming continues to accelerate, while the developing and the developed world are locked in endless discussions about form
   Global warming continues to accelerate, while the developing and the developed world are locked in endless discussions about form

Yesterday, April 9, a new round of climate talks began in Bonn, Germany. Organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the discussions are aimed at resolving some of the most important issues our planet faces today, including the threat of global warming. The developing world is criticizing the Western world harshly for the document that was produced from the GOP 15 climate conference, which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, last December. Nations that are most at risk from the effects of desertification and sea-level rise want immediate actions.

According to representatives from these countries – who spoke in the first hours of the meeting – there is now a need greater than ever to produce a meaningful, legally binding agreement. The main criticism to the Copenhagen accord is that it does not set any kind of standards for any countries. In addition, even if countries set their own standards, there is no way for the UN or other regulatory body to enforce their application. These are only pledges, and not legally binding documents, so, basically everyone is free to pollute by as much as they want.

The developing and the third-world nations present at the Bonn summit criticized the United States above all developed countries, for some of the formulations its Copenhagen documents included. “My country raised its voice against the misnomer 'Copenhagen Accord' because […] it contains proposals for voluntary reductions in carbon emissions that according to scientists would lead to increases in temperature of about 5C (9F). So nobody should be congratulating themselves on that. The urgency we face now is even greater than 2009,” Claudia Salerno, the chief of the Venezuelan delegation to the conference, says. She described the Copenhagen deal as a “total failure,” the BBC News reports.

The written submission the US forwarded to the UNFCCC reads that, “It will be difficult to find consensus around alternative proposals that depart from the accord understandings,” a phrase that many are interpreting as the American government stating its unwillingness to discuss any other type of proposal that is not a non-legally binding one. “As a well-known politician once said, the one thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history. The Africa Group believes that if we are to avoid a repetition of Copenhagen and repair this damaged process, then we must learn from Copenhagen,” Africa Group representative Tosi Mpanu Mpanu from the Democratic Republic of Congo said yesterday.