Africa Boycotts UN Climate Talks
African
countries have boycotted meetings at UN climate talks, saying that industrial
countries had set carbon-cutting targets too low for reducing global greenhouse
gas emissions.
About fifty African countries attending the meeting said they would only discuss
pledges submitted by wealthy countries and that until they had made a full
commitment, talks on other issues including carbon offsets and action by
developing countries should stop.
The group director of Climate Network Africa, a Kenya-based non-governmental
group, Grace Akumu, said what Africa was asking for was a higher commitment from
developed countries, which have said it was politically and economically
difficult for them to put numbers on the table.
Threat to Copenhagen
Delegates to this week's UN climate talks in Barcelona have
warned that, unless the African protest was settled, it could set back the
timetable for concluding a new climate change pact at a major UN conference next
month, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
This is the first time Africans have taken such a tough stance at such a forum,
though they have coordinated their positions in the past.
AP/Yinka
