Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 12/14/2009 1:59:23 PM PST by myknowledge
Africa's frustration at the UN climate summit boiled over on Monday as delegates walked out of key talks and continental giant Nigeria warned the negotiations were now on red alert.
Sources at the marathon talks said Africa led a five-hour boycott of working groups, with the backing of the Group of 77 developing nations, and only returned after securing guarantees that the summit would not sideline talks about the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol ties rich countries - but not developing countries - that have ratified it to legally binding emissions curbs.
It also has an important mechanism enabling the transfer of clean-energy technology to poorer nations.
Yet it does not include the United States, which says the Protocol is unfair as the binding targets do not apply to developing giants that are already huge emitters of greenhouse gases.
Algeria, speaking at a press briefing on behalf of the 53-member African Union, demanded that there should be a special plenary session devoted to Kyoto.
"Otherwise we are going to lose everything," Algeria's chief negotiator Kemal Djemouia told reporters.
Asked about the state of negotiations, Nigeria's pointman rang the alarm bell.
"It is 'climate code red' right now, we are in code red right now, we stand at the crossroads of either hope for Africa or hope dashed in 'Hopenhagen'," Victor Ayodeji Fodeke told AFP.
He said that climate change was already triggering widespread migration in Africa, further increasing the competition for precious resources.
"Look at the situation in Africa," he said.
"The Millennium Development Goals will be a mirage, poverty will be further exacerbated. Right now you have climate refugees... Look at the droughts in east Africa. Climate change is a reality in Africa."
The Nigerian negotiator said that Africa had the support of emerging giants China and India in insisting that Kyoto does not get ignored.
"They are certainly behind us, they are with us that Kyoto must not die."
Yvo de Boer, the UN's climate chief, said there was widespread sympathy for Africa's concerns.
"I think this is not just an African concern," he told a press conference. "The vast majority of countries here want to see an extension of Kyoto."
Scientists say African countries will be in the frontline of climate change this century.
The continent faces greater risk of heatwaves, drought or changed rainfall patterns that could spell misery or malnutrition for millions. Yet it has the slenderest resources of all for coping with these threats.
Activist groups said they fully backed the Africans' stance, arguing that a voluntarist, non-binding approach would deprive the poor of their sole international safety net.
"Africa has pulled the emergency cord to avoid a train crash at the end of the week," said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International.
"Poor countries want to see an outcome which guarantees sharp emissions reductions yet rich countries are trying to delay discussions on the only mechanism we have to deliver this - the Kyoto Protocol.
"This is not about blocking the talks, it is about whether rich countries are ready to guarantee action on climate change and the survival of people in Africa and across the world," Hobbs added.
The environmental pressure group WWF said that uncertainty about the future of Kyoto was "creating a lot of mistrust and resentment within these negotiations".
"We believe a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol is a necessary part of the... outcome of Copenhagen, and we support Africa's demands for this," it said.
Africa sucks. It always has and it always will. The last time anybody worked for a living was building Pyramids.
Aww, the Africans are angry that the big, bad “rich” nations aren’t just going to spread the wealth their way? Aww. Gosh. Just, gosh.
“I want my money Biyotsh” Africa said today at the Hopenhagle Conference “or we’ll scream even louder!”
“Pay up or your utopia never materializes, crackers!” said the African representative for the NGO, Time Heals Uncut Guts....
Hopefully the cord is connected to the trigger of a nuclear bomb.
I think the Nigerians are just exhibiting professional jealousy here, they didn't think anyone could come up with a better scam than they could.
He said that climate change was already triggering widespread migration in Africa
I hope all you white-a$$ed, honky cracker, imperialist slave-owners are ashamed of yourselves!
They want Obamadollars.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Sorry Africa, you threw out the Europeans decades ago. Grow up, kick some straggler but, and get your own rear ends out the the dirt. Stop blaming us.
I found an excellent page here:
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
The upshot is, when you take into account the highest contributor to the greenhouse effect, water vapor, the total man-made contribution to the greenhouse effect is 0.28%.
Of that, greenhouse effect contribution due to man-made CO2 is .117%.
IT’S NOT ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING FOLKS.
We'll need an asteroid impact or a Toba event to right things.
The Nigerians are in it for what they are always in it for ...a scam.
Almost all of Nigeria is an EFA and it didn’t take any industrialization to do it.
I am confused...the picture shows all the women in a choir....and Sarah Palin????
Does Sarah Palin believe in this Global Warming nonsense?
>>Look at the droughts in east Africa. Climate change is a reality in Africa
East Africa was a drought-ridden sh!thole way back when the Big Climate Crisis(tm) was still global cooling!
The shakedown has failed so they are acting out....
Ha! Ha! Ha!.....Are negotiations all wee wee’d up?
We have a robbery in progress at the Hopenhaggle.
They want some Obama Money!!!
Those pesky ‘Fricans are getting uppity again. The left won’t be happy if they don’t go along with the OWG plans.
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