WARSAW: Six green groups walked out of UN climate negotiations yesterday, declaring that the ailing talks were “on track to deliver virtually nothing”. “Organisations and movements representing people from every corner of the Earth have decided that the best use of our time is to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks,” they said in a statement.
“The Warsaw climate conference, which should have been an important step in the just transition to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing.” The signatories were Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam, ActionAid, the International Trade Union Confederation and Friends of the Earth.
The annual round of talks are meant to pave the way to a climate deal by 2015 that will peg global warming to a maximum 2.0 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial revolution levels. But deep faultlines have emerged between rich and poor nations.
The negotiations, which opened on November 11, entered their penultimate day yesterday with the two sides still squabbling over funding for poor nations to deal with climate change, and apportioning curbs in climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.
Green groups attend the talks as observers and advisors, and do not take part in decision-making, which is reserved for UN member states. Greenpeace spokesman Gregor Kessler said the groups were “leaving this year’s conference for good today”.
He said the delegations, or at least that of Greenpeace, would not leave Warsaw altogether, and would “follow the discussions from the outside”. “We will not be part of the internal discussions.”
AFP
