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News and Views from the Global South
POLITICS: Developing Nations Sceptical of Climate Summit
Thalif Deen
- The 130-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing nations, is at loggerheads with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over an upcoming one-day global summit on climate change in New York on Sep. 22.
The summit, described as a high profile political exercise, will take place in advance of a major meeting in Copenhagen in mid-December to negotiate a new global treaty on climate change under the auspices of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
In a letter to the G77 last week, the secretary-general allayed some of the fears of developing nations when he pointedly said: “The summit will not be a forum for negotiations, which are, and must continue, to be conducted under the UNFCC.”
“My intention is to make this (summit) a productive, focused and interactive meeting by bringing together heads of state and government to provide a sense of urgency for action and political direction to UNFCC negotiations,” he added.
But at an ambassadorial meeting of the G77, which also includes China, several delegates expressed concern over the format of the summit and the logistical arrangements.
The G77 chair, Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed of Sudan, was mandated to meet with the secretary-general next week to clarify several issues.
First, in terms of representation, is the summit at the level of heads of state or heads of government? Or will it be at the “highest political level”?
Second, what is the purpose of the secretary-general’s proposal for a “summary” of the outcome of the summit – particularly since the summit is not involved in any negotiations?
One ambassador asked: “Is there a hidden agenda in the summit? And will the so-called ‘summary’ be viewed as some sort of political declaration of the summit?”
Among the guidelines laid down for the summit is that political leaders should address climate change as a “global issue”, not as a “national issue” – or how it affects their own domestic agendas.
Protocol-wise, the secretary-general does not have the right to dictate to member states, and specifically heads of state and heads of government, as to what they should or should not say when they address the world body.
China and India, two developing nations which are expected to take a tough stance at the Copenhagen meeting, also do not want the upcoming negotiations to be influenced by any extraneous political factors.
At a press conference in Geneva Thursday, Ban told reporters he expects more than 100 world leaders to participate in the summit.
“This is the forum where they will really be able to demonstrate their political leadership role,” he said.
Reinforcing his guidelines, Ban also said: “I know each and every leader; they have their own domestic agendas, domestic challenges. But they should be able to overcome this one.”
“That is why we are providing a political forum where they can give political leadership and political guidance to these very important issues,” Ban added.
According to current plans, only a limited number of world leaders will be speaking at the summit while a “working dinner” to be hosted by the secretary-general is being confined to only 25 of the more than 100 world leaders expected to be present at the summit.
“While fully respecting the prerogative of the secretary-general in preparing this summit, we must ensure that the full membership of the United Nations is able to participate at the highest possible level for the summit to be a success,” the chair of the G77 said in a letter to the secretary-general last month.
In his response, Ban assured the G77 that the summit and its roundtable meetings “will be inclusive and transparent, with all nations being allowed to attend and participate in the discussions.”
“Furthermore, you can be rest assured that full consideration will be given to balanced representation for choosing limited number of speakers at the opening plenary, so that they will air global perspectives from different angles.”
At his Geneva press conference Thursday, Ban also said there are several issues, “very serious political issues”, which need to be settled in Copenhagen.
He pointed out that the summit meeting in New York will have to work as “a bridging role where leaders will demonstrate their political leadership and instruct the negotiators clearly on their guidelines”.
“We know that the financial and technological support for developing countries is the key: how much and in what scale can we provide support so that they can adapt and mitigate,” he said.
That, he argued, will be the key, together with an ambitious target by the industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
“Those will be very key issues which we will have to deal with,” he noted.
Ban also said many countries have been experiencing extreme weather patterns, like flooding, long spells of drought and earthquakes.
This should not be taken for granted or taken as normal natural circumstances because these are happening because of climate change.
“We are now at a very crucially important moment to address all these issues,” Ban said. “I believe we have resources, we have technology, we have finance – all we are lacking is political will.”
“I would not comment on what each and every leader may do or may not take any action on these particular issues, but that depends on the national leaders.”
“What I am emphasising is that in this crucially important time, when we are suffering from multiple crises, they should now act as global leaders rather than national leaders,” the secretary-general noted.
He also said: “I appreciate their national challenges, national agendas. It may be very important. They are sometimes very sensitive and conscious of their voters wish.”
But leaders should be able to lead certain initiatives when they believe that it is something which they have to do, even despite domestic opinions, he declared.
“This is what I am really appealing to world leaders,” he added.
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