UN: Poor nations fear broken promises on climate change

DEVELOPING countries don’t trust wealthy nations’ promises that they will help them meet the challenges of climate change, the UN’s top climate official said yesterday, adding that means any new global warming deal must have legal force.

The legal status of an agreement and whether nations will be sanctioned for failing to meet their commitments are contentious issues in talks on controlling the world’s emissions of carbon and other heat-raising greenhouse gases.

“We live in a world of broken promises,” said Yvo de Boer, the UN climate chief. Developing countries are concerned “they will commit to targets and not deliver.”

He spoke as negotiators resumed work in Barcelona yesterday on a draft agreement for approval at a major UN conference next month in Copenhagen.

The talks among some 180 countries focus on emissions targets by industrial nations and on actions the developing countries can take to slow the growth of their own emissions without impairing their development. Delegates also must determine how to raise and manage 100 billion a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change.

Attention focused yesterday on if the US can commit to a specific target to reduce emissions over the next decade and how much the US will contribute to a global fund to help developing countries.

Scientists say poor countries will be hardest hit by climate change. They say coastal areas will be threatened by rising sea levels, countries will be hit by more severe storms as well as more frequent drought, and tropical diseases and warm weather pests will spread.

“We expect the United States to be able to deliver on one of the major challenges of our century,” said Danish Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, who will chair the Copenhagen meeting.

He noted that President Obama will be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on December 10 — just as the decisive climate conference is under way.

“It’s very hard to imagine how the American president can receive the Nobel prize for his contributions to hope in the world... and at the same time send an empty-handed delegation to Copenhagen,” said the Danish minister.