By Joydeep Gupta, IANS
Bali : During the final hours of negotiations at the Dec 3-14 UN conference on climate change here, one industrialised country had threatened developing countries with trade sanctions if they did not fall in line, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram said Friday evening.
Pakistan is the current chair of the group of 77, which, along with China, has adopted a common negotiating position at the Bali summit meant to address global warming.
While Akram did not name the industrialised country, a member of the Pakistani delegation told IANS that it was the US.
Akram said G-77 had been “threatened” during the closed-door negotiations on what industrialised and developing countries should do to mitigate their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) that are leading to climate change.
Asked to specify the threat, he first said: “We were told we could come on board in a positive way but if there was no agreement there were other measures that could be utilised.”
Again asked to specify the measures, Akram said: “Trade sanctions. In the course of negotiations, what is in the heart and mind sometimes comes to the tongue.
“It shows an approach that we reject and will collectively resist. This is not the way to build a cooperative regime to control climate change.”
A senior member of the Indian government delegation did not think the threat was serious, saying it had been delivered in the heat of the moment. Asked about it, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer wondered how “one-and-a-half countries can threaten over 130”.
Akram said the G-77 had been forced to fight “an uphill battle at this conference to project our legitimate interests”.
A few hours before the negotiations were scheduled to conclude, he said: “On the future process (on how to address climate change after 2012) there are still deep differences on whether it should be done through a dialogue or formal negotiations.
“There is a concerted effort from certain industrialised countries for a new and comprehensive international agreement.
“This could be designed to erode the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or the Kyoto Protocol or to replace them. We’re reluctant to do that and I think we’ll succeed.”
Akram said the G-77 had found it extremely difficult” to get a commitment on mitigation of GHG emissions from industrialised countries, especially the US. “We’re still struggling.”
“At the same time developing countries are under strong pressure to also accept commitments and obligations. It is unfair, unjust and will significantly retard development objectives. This is the central difference that remains.”
Asked about the move by many industrialised countries to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a new one, Akram said the G-77 did not agree but there could be a number of “understandings” to broaden the framework convention and the protocol.
Akram predicted: “Unfortunately the final document (that will come out of the Bali summit) will have very little of the science developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), its conclusions and their implications for action.”