SA presses rich on climate
2008-12-11 21:44
Johannesburg - South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Thursday told the UN climate conference in Poland rich nations were hampering the quest for a new global deal on carbon emissions.
The developed world has failed to agree to bold reduction targets, seemingly cowed by the global financial crisis, he said in a speech for delivery on the penultimate day of the talks in Poznan.
"Unfortunately some of our developed country partners still play hide and seek with commitments on ambitious mid-term targets.
"We call on them to come forward with clear targets," said the minister.
He has in recent days urged rich nations to agree to slash their domestic emissions output by 80-95% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.
'We cannot dither'
Van Schalkwyk said time was short if nations were to meet their deadline of signing a new global pact on fighting climate change in Copenhagen in 2009.
"We cannot now dither in the face of a short-term economic downturn."
The minister said developing countries were ready to take the lead in moving forward the process, designed to implement a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
But it was "disappointing" that wealthy countries had turned a deaf ear to recent proposals from China and the G77 on proposals to curb greenhouse gas output, he said.
In a breakthrough last year, developing nations who long argued they could not afford to commit to emission cuts, said they would do so if they received the technology and finances to move toward lower-carbon economies.
Obstacles
The UN conference has however run into obstacles from other quarters.
The US delegation sent by outgoing President George W Bush is opposing specific targets for reducing global carbon emissions.
And although the EU has agreed on a 20% cut in emissions by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, it is deeply divided on how its 27 members will work together to reach that goal.
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has long cast herself as a leader in the fight against global warming, vowed not to ink any EU deal that would endanger German jobs in the face of the economic slowdown.
Van Schalkwyk wagged a finger at Washington in his speech, saying: "We must give binding force to mitigation commitments by the developed country that has not yet ratified the Kyoto Protocol."
He said South Africa was committed to letting emissions peak between 2020 and 2025, then stabilising for 10 years before declining drastically by the middle of the century.
- SAPA