Tiempo Climate Newswatch

"The only thing that they have agreed on in Bonn, is that they fundamentally disagree on all issues," concluded Regine Günther of WWF at the end of the latest round of the climate negotiations. Though there was general disappointment at the slow progress made at the 12-day meeting, Yvo de Boer, who heads the climate treaty secretariat, remained optimistic. "I think that this session has made clear what governments want to see in a Copenhagen agreement. It shows that they are committed to reaching an agreement and this is a big achievement," he said. Even de Boer accepts, though, that it will be "physically impossible" to have a detailed agreement in Copenhagen in December this year. Michael Zammit Cutajar, chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention, warned that big breakthroughs were likely to happen only in Copenhagen. "This is like the evolutionary process in reverse. The Big Bang comes at the end," he said.

In a significant move, the United States announced that it would not demand that China commits to binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, said Jonathan Pershing, head of the United States delegation, "we're saying that the actions of developing countries should be binding, not the outcomes of those actions." Developing countries seeking to grow their economies and alleviate poverty would be asked to commit to measures such as increasing energy efficiency standards and promoting renewable energy rather than specific emissions targets. Both the United States and the European Union stressed that private finance, through, for example, carbon offsetting, rather than government funding would assist developing nations follow a low-emissions development path.

"Climate change will magnify the uneven distribution of risk, skewing disaster impacts even further toward poor communities in developing countries," according to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Developing countries with big populations, led by China, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, suffer the most fatalities from natural disasters, but "you also have to look at it in relative terms - the proportion of the population at risk," argues the report's lead author, Andrew Maskrey from the United Nations Development Programme. From this vantage, those at risk are mainly small countries, Dominica in the Caribbean, Vanuatu in the Pacific alongside Myanmar and Guatemala. The report "urges a major shift in development thinking by emphasizing resilience and pre-emptive measures," said Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general.

Millions of people will have to flee their homes as sea-level rise develops and drought becomes more common predicts a new report, In Search of Shelter, from the United Nations University, CARE International and Columbia University. Regions that are particularly vulnerable include island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives, dry areas such as the Sahel and parts of Mexico and the deltas of Bangladesh, Vietnam and Egypt. "All major estimates project that the trend will rise to tens of millions of migrants in coming years. Within the next few decades, the consequences of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating," the report concludes.

Japan's new emissions target has been met with heavy criticism. The Japanese government intends to reduce emissions 15 per cent below 2005 levels by the year 2020, but this would only represent a two per cent drop beyond its existing Kyoto Protocol commitment. Yvo de Boer, head of the climate treaty secretariat was lost for words when asked about the Japanese announcement. "I think for the first time in two and half years in this job, I don’t know what to say," he responded.

The global web movement Avaaz accused Japanese prime minister Taro Aso of attempting to "claim the mantle of George W Bush, who retired in disgrace after eight years of blocking progress on climate change." According to a recent Avaaz poll, 62 per cent of Japanese voters believe that government isn’t doing enough to combat climate change. "Japan’s target is not nearly enough to stop the effects of global warming," said Naoyuki Yamagishi of WWF Japan. "Japan has failed to step up to its international responsibilities." Aso considers the 2020 target "ambitious." "We are all responsible for stopping climate change," he said. "We must ask the Japanese people to make sacrifices. That is the cost of saving our planet."