Asian nations welcome UN climate change deal
Monday, 21 December 2009
HONG KONG, Dec 20 (AFP): Asian nations on Sunday welcomed the provisional climate change deal struck by the major powers at the UN summit in Copenhagen, saying it paved the way toward consensus on carbon emissions cuts.
The Copenhagen Accord, passed Saturday after two weeks of frantic negotiations, was condemned elsewhere as a backdoor deal that violated UN democracy, excluded the poor and doomed the world to disastrous climate change.
But governments from China to Indonesia spoke of "significant and positive results," "a direction for negotiations" and satisfaction over a conclusion that addressed their concerns.
China welcomed the outcome of the talks, despite leaders at the summit failing to set targets to cut the carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
"With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was quoted as saying in a statement on the ministry's website.
Yang, who never specifically mentioned the accord, said the summit had successfully maintained the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility," which recognises differing economic circumstances between emerging and rich nations.
China, the world's biggest carbon polluter, has always said rich countries should take the lead in committing to substantial emission reduction targets and provide finance to developing countries battling climate change.
The Copenhagen Accord set a goal of "jointly mobilising" 100 billion dollars for developing nations by 2020.
China has pledged to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a statement on his website: "Indonesia is pleased, as (we have) taken a wholehearted stance to save our Earth, to save the children in our country."
With the deal, "there is a direction for negotiations in the middle of 2010 in Germany," Yudhoyono said, without elaborating.
Germany will host a conference on climate change in six months in Bonn to follow up the work of the Copenhagen summit. The final outcome will be sealed at a conference in Mexico City at the end of 2010.
The prime minister of Bangladesh, one of the nations worst-hit by global warming, said she was satisfied with the summit, and hoped rows over thorny issues would be ironed out soon.
"I am pleased to say that we have been successful in arriving at a reasonable conclusion," Sheikh Hasina said, while speaking at Lund University in Denmark, hours after the world leaders hammered out the deal.
Meanwhile Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), described accord as "an agreement that will really not be the final word.
"We will have build on it, we will have to make sure it moves quickly towards the status of a legally binding agreement and therefore I think the task for the global community is cut out," he told the NDTV news channel in India.
Another report adds: World leaders on Sunday insisted that the climate deal clinched in desperation at the UN summit was the best that can be done as they returned home to a lashing from critics.
Newspapers widely called the summit accord a failure and experts such as the head of a Nobel Peace prize winning climate panel said "urgent" action was now needed.
US President Barack Obama acknowledged that all of the world's polluters would quickly have to do more, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the critics would only hold up the battle against rising temperatures that threaten devastating floods, storms and drought.
Obama returned to the White House and said "extremely difficult and complex negotiations" had been needed in Copenhagen.
"This breakthrough lays the foundation for international action in the years to come."
A White House statement included quotes from environmentalists, captains of industry and leading politicians.
Michael Eckhart, head of the American Council on Renewable Energy, applauded Obama's "wisdom in achieving an agreement on the aspirational goal, limiting the outcome which we all care about, because this will stand to rule all else that comes in future negotiations."
But Bill McKibben, founder of the environmentalist group 350.org, said in a separate statement that Obama "has wrecked the UN and he's wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming."
The Wall Street Journal called the Copenhagen deal "a pre-emptive dead letter because countries like China, Brazil and India said they were unwilling to accept anything that depressed their economic growth."
The Copenhagen Accord, passed Saturday after two weeks of frantic negotiations, was condemned elsewhere as a backdoor deal that violated UN democracy, excluded the poor and doomed the world to disastrous climate change.
But governments from China to Indonesia spoke of "significant and positive results," "a direction for negotiations" and satisfaction over a conclusion that addressed their concerns.
China welcomed the outcome of the talks, despite leaders at the summit failing to set targets to cut the carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
"With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was quoted as saying in a statement on the ministry's website.
Yang, who never specifically mentioned the accord, said the summit had successfully maintained the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility," which recognises differing economic circumstances between emerging and rich nations.
China, the world's biggest carbon polluter, has always said rich countries should take the lead in committing to substantial emission reduction targets and provide finance to developing countries battling climate change.
The Copenhagen Accord set a goal of "jointly mobilising" 100 billion dollars for developing nations by 2020.
China has pledged to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a statement on his website: "Indonesia is pleased, as (we have) taken a wholehearted stance to save our Earth, to save the children in our country."
With the deal, "there is a direction for negotiations in the middle of 2010 in Germany," Yudhoyono said, without elaborating.
Germany will host a conference on climate change in six months in Bonn to follow up the work of the Copenhagen summit. The final outcome will be sealed at a conference in Mexico City at the end of 2010.
The prime minister of Bangladesh, one of the nations worst-hit by global warming, said she was satisfied with the summit, and hoped rows over thorny issues would be ironed out soon.
"I am pleased to say that we have been successful in arriving at a reasonable conclusion," Sheikh Hasina said, while speaking at Lund University in Denmark, hours after the world leaders hammered out the deal.
Meanwhile Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), described accord as "an agreement that will really not be the final word.
"We will have build on it, we will have to make sure it moves quickly towards the status of a legally binding agreement and therefore I think the task for the global community is cut out," he told the NDTV news channel in India.
Another report adds: World leaders on Sunday insisted that the climate deal clinched in desperation at the UN summit was the best that can be done as they returned home to a lashing from critics.
Newspapers widely called the summit accord a failure and experts such as the head of a Nobel Peace prize winning climate panel said "urgent" action was now needed.
US President Barack Obama acknowledged that all of the world's polluters would quickly have to do more, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the critics would only hold up the battle against rising temperatures that threaten devastating floods, storms and drought.
Obama returned to the White House and said "extremely difficult and complex negotiations" had been needed in Copenhagen.
"This breakthrough lays the foundation for international action in the years to come."
A White House statement included quotes from environmentalists, captains of industry and leading politicians.
Michael Eckhart, head of the American Council on Renewable Energy, applauded Obama's "wisdom in achieving an agreement on the aspirational goal, limiting the outcome which we all care about, because this will stand to rule all else that comes in future negotiations."
But Bill McKibben, founder of the environmentalist group 350.org, said in a separate statement that Obama "has wrecked the UN and he's wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming."
The Wall Street Journal called the Copenhagen deal "a pre-emptive dead letter because countries like China, Brazil and India said they were unwilling to accept anything that depressed their economic growth."