China:
Poor countries are first in line for funding
So
far the majority of internationally funded projects under
the Kyoto Protocol have been in China. But other countries
need the funds more urgently according to Vice Foreign Minister
He Yafei.
Morten Andersen - 15/12/2009 - China will no longer take
the lion’s share of international funding for carbon
mitigation projects under the UN-backed Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM). This is according to an interview given
by Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei to the Financial Times
earlier this week. The statements were first interpreted
as if China would refrain totally from any financing under
the scheme, but that view has now been corrected.
Foreign
ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu tells My Sinchew that the
minister “had said China was focussed on the special
concerns of the least developed countries, African countries
and the small island countries” and that Beijing was
“willing to give priority to these countries in using
the capital assistance given by developed countries”.
Still,
this does not mean that China will abandon international
funding, Jiang Yu clarifies:
“China,
relying on its own resources, has taken a lot of measures
and made great achievements. If we could get enough international
support, I believe that China could do an even better job
in protecting the global environment as well as fighting
climate change.”
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Developing
world threatens battle on drafts
African
countries, Brazil, China, South Africa and India say they
have produced a default proposal to be used only if rich
countries try to shortcut UN-led negotiations in Copenhagen.
Morten Andersen - 15/12/2009 - At the ongoing UN conference
on climate change, COP15, a group consisting of African
countries plus the BASIC block – Brazil, South Africa,
India and China – have drawn up a text for a new global
agreement.
However,
the text is only "ready in the wings (…) if any
of the other groups springs a surprise draft (…) then
the G-77 (Group of 77, representing most of the world’s
developing countries) would put out this text," the
Hindustan Times reports, quoting India's Environment Minister
Jairam Ramesh:
"We
are holding it (…) if there is a "Danish"
we will produce "ABASIC"," the minister says.
By
a "Danish" the minister hints at a draft text
allegedly produced by the Copenhagen conference’s
host last week, claimed to favor developed countries.
"ABASIC"
is an acronym combining an A for Africa with BASIC, which
is an informal group consisting of Brazil, South Africa,
India and China.
In
another interview Jairam Ramesh indicates that the default
text may never be released, as the negotiations are already
hampered by too many drafts:
"I
think the way the (UN) working groups are functioning is
not conducive to creating any form of consensus. Right now
I'm really confused. If you want to maintain your sanity,
don’t look at drafts," Mr. Ramesh tells Bloomberg.
Da UNFCCC
