Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Developing nations were angry that the Bonn Climate Change Talks failed to set a target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions by the industrialized nations. "We're very disappointed at this turn of events," said Yu Qingtai, head of the Chinese delegation. "There is a very consistent lack of interest to engage," he continued. "It's been a tactical two weeks," reported Michael Zammit Cutajar, who set up the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat. "In general on the whole question of numbers people are very wary because... that's where the politics comes in."

Observers did report that the overall tone of the meeting was positive, not least due to the arrival of the first delegation from the Obama administration. Progress was made in firming up concepts such as nationally-appropriate mitigation actions in developing countries (introduced in the Bali Action Plan) and the potential role of conservation within the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation ( REDD) process. Many issues remain, however, to be resolved, for example, whether the role of the Convention in technology transfer should be action-based or advisory. The next meeting, at which negotiating texts for Copenhagen must be resolved, will take place in June.

A group of the world's least developed nations (LDCs) has called on the industrialized nations to support the most urgent adaptation actions identified under the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs). The cost of implementing all the actions identified in the NAPAs completed to date would exceed US$1.6 billion. "The LDCs are demanding that the rich countries pledge up to US$2 billion funding over the next five years," said Saleemul Huq of the International Institute for Environment and Development. "The poorest and most vulnerable countries have contributed least to climate change and will suffer most from its impacts. The rich countries can and must live up to their words and massively increase their funding to compensate the least developed countries."

Fearful of the economic consequences, nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are uneasy about calls from other developing nations for the richer nations to cut carbon emissions by at least 40 per cent by the year 2020. "Whatever policies will be adopted will add to the uncertainties for the demand for oil," commented Mohammad Al Sabban, adviser to the Ministry for Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Saudi Arabia. "We share the concern for climate change but at the same time we don’t want to be a victim." Abdullah al-Badri, OPEC secretary general, recently claimed that oil was not responsible for climate change. "It is the industrialized countries which are making all this pollution in the world," he said.

An ice bridge that pinned the Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf in place has shattered. "It's amazing how the ice has ruptured. Two days ago it was intact," said David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. "We've waited a long time to see this." The 40 kilometre strip of ice off the Antarctic Peninsula snapped at its narrowest point where it is around 500 metres wide.

The loss of the ice bridge marks the latest stage in the collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The process began in February when a large iceberg fell away from the shelf's southwestern front leading to disintegration of 405 square kilometres of the shelf interior. "The Wilkins is an example of an event we don't see very often" commented Ted Scambos from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, based in Boulder, Colorado, in the United States. "But it's a key process," he continued, "in being able to predict how sea level will change in the future."