FROM-WSJ
Copenhagen Walkout: Poor Countries Bail on Climate Talks
By Keith Johnson
The climate-change conference in the Danish capital of Copenhagen is in disarray after some 130 developing countries walked out of the confab on Monday. That’s led to at least a temporary suspension of the conference while rich-world delegations try to convince developing nations to rejoing the talks.
Fundamentally, the walkout seems to be a “put up or shut up” message from poor countries to rich ones. The developing countries are upset that the Copenhagen conference may ditch the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and are upset with paltry amounts of financing offered so far by developed countries.
An official in the Nigerian delegation which was part of the walkout, said Europe’s lowball offers of financial support were “pathetic. He added: “There will be no commitments from the G77 [bloc of developing countries] until we get better assurances about financial and technology transfers,” reports our colleague Alessandro Torello from Copenhagen.
Here’s more on the walkout, from BBC, Sky News, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Tree Hugger calls the walkout the “nuclear option” for developing countries, while noting that it’s a tactic used before at climate conferences.
The developing world loves the Kyoto Protocol because it imposes emissions limits on industrialized nations, but not on developing countries (not even really big ones, such as China.) At the same time, Kyoto envisions richer countries helping underwrite climate-change policies and clean-energy projects in developing countries.
Those two issues—who will cut emissions and who will pick up the bill—have been at the center of contentious climate negotiations for months, but the showdown has come to a head in the final week of the Copenhagen conference, just days before world leaders including President Obama are scheduled to arrive.
Stay tuned.
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