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  Channel NewsAsia 1 May 07
Poor countries demand a voice on climate change

BANGKOK : As climate change experts meet in Bangkok, poor nations suffering the brunt of global warming's worst effects are determined their voices will not be drowned out by bickering world powers.

Impoverished countries, struggling with a lack of money, basic technology, large populations and weak infrastructure, have few tools to tackle climate change or halt its impact on their environment.

That will not stop them demanding a say as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's leading body on global warming, meets here to hammer out a plan to limit the worst impacts of global warming.

"Developing countries are innocent as far as emissions causing the climate change, but unfortunately seem to be recipients of undesirable outcomes," Rwandan delegate Didace Musoni said.

"My input is equally important. We need each other to solve this problem which threatens all of us," he told AFP on the first day of the IPCC meeting, which runs to Friday.

An IPCC report in April warned that drought, floods and storms will increase as global temperatures rise, putting the health of millions at risk.

The poorest counties will be hardest hit, it said, despite being largely guilt-free when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions.

In 2004, just 20 percent of people on Earth lived in rich countries, but IPCC figures showed they were responsible for 46 percent of all the greenhouse gasses spewed into the atmosphere that year.

It is the rich and fast-developing nations that are predicted to dominate the Bangkok session, with heavy polluters China and the United States expected to lock horns with nations keen for a more eco-friendly approach.

A report is expected to be released at the end of the meeting. An early draft of the panel's 24-page summary, seen by AFP, says that greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced at modest cost, with renewable energy, nuclear power, reforestation and a carbon tax all possible solutions.

Abigail Gay Jabines, climate campaigner for environmental group Greenpeace, said poor nations should focus on renewable energy such as solar and wind power and bypass the " dirty" energy phase that rich countries went through. "It's something that these countries can do without following the footsteps of the industrialised nations and releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide," she said.

However, some countries are finding they have little choice but to turn to more polluting methods to supply the ever-increasing demand for power.

"Ten years ago (our energy) was mostly hydro-electricity," said delegate Lalith Chandrapala, from Sri Lanka's Department of Meteorology. "Now, with the increase in power consumption... we are going into coal. The problem is for a country like Sri Lanka, because our economy is not that strong, we can't afford anything else."

Chandrapala said rich countries should share climate change technologies with poorer ones. He also pointed to an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing rich nations to invest in green projects in poor countries to compensate for their own emissions -- a process called the clean development mechanism, or CDM.

Another voice calling for poor nations to have a say is China, which is expected soon to overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. Chinese delegate Sun Guoshun told AFP that he hoped the final IPCC report reflected the views of rich and poor nations.

But one delegate said polluting countries such as China and India should stop hiding behind the "developing country" tag to shirk their environmental responsibilities.

"The argument that you are still a developing country is getting weaker and weaker," said Marzio Galeotti, Italian delegate and an energy economist at the University of Milan. "In a few years, in terms of overall GDP (gross domestic product), China will overcome even Japan and will be close to the US."

Despite the squabbles, most delegates agree that there is little time to waste to prevent a climate change disaster.

"Whether we have different incomes (and) backgrounds, the change in climate is there. Whether you are rich or poor, developed or developing, the impact is on your door," Rwanda's Musoni said. - AFP
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