Large rifts remain as United Nations climate talks tick down to a Friday deadline. A lot of the divide comes down to money, which nations have it and which do not. So it's time for the diplomatic cavalry to ride in.
The two-week climate conference in Glasgow first saw heads of government talking about how curbing global warming is a fight for survival. The leaders focused on big pictures, not the intricate wording crucial to negotiations. Then, for about a week, the technocratic negotiations focused on those key details, getting some things done but not resolving the really sticky situations.
To forge compromise, they have a big gap to bridge. Or more accurately, multiple gaps: there's a trust gap and a wealth gap. A north-south gap. It's about money, history and the future. As the head of the conference briefed countries Monday on the progress - and the lack of it, in some ways - in the talks, developing country after developing country responded by noting how unfulfilled rich nations' financial pledges were.
“They reneged on their promise. They failed to deliver it,” Huq said. “And they seem not to care about it. And, so why should we trust anything they say anymore?” Huq said that rich, polluting nations also had failed the rest of the world by not delivering on emission targets that would limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. As things stand, it's the poor who pay for the destruction caused by climate change, he said. Studies have shown that poorer nations, like Bangladesh, are hit harder by climate change than rich nations, which also have more resources to adapt to extreme weather.
While China is now the No. 1 carbon polluter and India is No. 3, carbon dioxide stays in the air for centuries. Based on historical emissions - the stuff still in the atmosphere trapping heatHohne said it is normal for high-level ministers to ride to the rescue in the second week of climate talks.
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