2009年12月14日

气候峰会火药味日渐浓厚 Divide Between Rich, Poor Nations Widens At Climate Summit

合国气候峰会的紧张气氛周一进一步升温,贫穷国家的一组代表曾一度走出会场,抗议谈判进展缓慢,而欧盟官员则表达了对美国和中国的恼火。

一名巴西外交官说,代表发展中国家以及巴西、印度和中国等新兴经济体的77国集团在周一上午的谈判中退出了会议。瑞典环境部长安德烈亚斯•卡尔格林(Andreas Carlgren)说,代表们当天晚些时候重返会场,但实质性问题仍未得到解决。瑞典将在今年年底前担任为期6个月的欧盟轮值主席国,因此它是欧盟的代表。

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与会者经过一个地球模型,此前一些发展中国家退出会场令谈判一度停止。
哥本哈根会场内的动荡与会场外的骚动和混乱交相呼应,数百人要在寒冷的天气中排队等上几个小时才能进入会场中心。与此同时,丹麦警方周六和周日逮捕和拘留了1,000多名会场外的示威者。丹麦国会在气候会议前通过了新的立法,允许预防性拘留。根据这条规定,警方最长的扣留时间为12小时。

气候会议的正式程序已进入了第二周。包括奥巴马总统在内的一些国家的领导人预计将在本周晚些时候抵达,希望能在表面上达成一项协议,以遏制全球温室气体的排放,并建立新的机制,向贫穷国家提供补贴,让它们采用低碳能源技术或应对全球气温不断上升的影响。其中更引人注目的要求采取行动的是一些岛国的代表,他们警告说,如果极地冰盖融化提高了海平面,他们的低海拔国家可能会被淹没。

哥本哈根会议争执的核心是对资金问题的尖锐分歧。周一这个问题再度成为了焦点。

哥本哈根峰会旨在寻求达成新的国际协议,以在2012年后限制全球变暖。发展中国家希望保持1997年《京都议定书》(Kyoto Protocol)削减温室气体排放的框架,而以一份新的文件加以补充。《京都议定书》强制要求富裕国家减排,但没有对贫穷国家和美国做出限制。

中国代表团的一名成员说,中方的立场是《京都议定书》的规定必须在任何新的协议中得到尊重。但美国谈判代表曾说,他们不会支持对中国进行补贴。美国也从来没有批准《京都议定书》,原因之一是美国国会议员反对其方案,即富裕国家应该不断减少矿物燃料使用,而中国、印度和其他发展中国家不会面临这种限制,并从理论上能够继续以损害美国竞争对手为代价扩大生产。

哥本哈根会谈的另一个敏感问题周一浮出了水面。负责批准碳减排信用的联合国机构本月初拒绝了中国的10个风电项目,并指责中国捏造数据以获得国际补贴,中国随后大力抨击该机构。

中国国家发改委负责联合国清洁发展机制(CDM)相关事务的官员孙翠华说,如果你拒绝风力发电,那还有什么?

根据清洁发展机制,富裕国家可在贫穷国家投资碳减排项目,由此获得可以交易的碳减排信用。

孙翠华在中国风电场拥有者和开发企业发表声明抗议联合国此项决定的一个会议上对记者说,他们说我们操纵电价,这是不负责任的说法。

随着哥本哈根峰会的深入,就连77国集团内部也不是铁板一块。

据77国集团内部的一位知情官员说,沙特阿拉伯和巴西周一在碳捕捉和封存问题上产生了争执。目前沙特正在加强自身的减排努力。

巴西关注的是,碳捕捉和封存可能会削弱它的生物燃料产业,因为各国可能选择燃烧更多的化石燃料,将排放物掩埋到地下,而不是燃烧乙醇等清洁的生物燃料。巴西是乙醇生产大国。

Alessandro Torello / Spencer Swartz



Tensions flared Monday at the United Nations climate summit, as representatives from a group of poor nations briefly walked out of the conference to protest the slow pace of negotiations, and European Union officials expressed exasperation with the U.S. and China.

The Group of 77, which represents developing countries as well as large emerging economies such as Brazil, India and China, walked out of the negotiations in the morning, a Brazilian diplomat said. The delegates returned to the conference later Monday, but the underlying issues remained unsolved, Swedish Minister Andreas Carlgren said. Sweden represents the European Union, as it holds the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-country bloc until the end of the year.

The turbulence inside the Copenhagen conference was matched by disturbances and disorganization outside, as hundreds of people waited in line for hours in chilly weather to gain access to the conference center. Meanwhile, Danish police arrested and detained more than 1,000 protestors who staged demonstrations outside the climate conference Saturday and Sunday. Danish lawmakers passed new legislation ahead of the climate conference allowing preventative detention, under which people can be held by police for up to 12 hours.

The official proceedings of the climate conference are heading into their second week. World leaders, including President Barack Obama, are expected to arrive late this week ostensibly to clinch a deal to curb worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and establish new mechanisms for subsidizing efforts by poor countries to adopt low-carbon energy technology or adapt to the effects of rising global temperatures. Among the more high profile groups demanding action are representatives of island nations who have warned their low-lying countries could be swamped if melting polar ice caps raise ocean levels.

At the heart of the disputes in Copenhagen are sharp disagreements over money, which came to the fore again Monday.

The Copenhagen summit seeks to find a new agreement on international rules to limit global warming after 2012. Developing countries want to keep the structure of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol --which mandates rich nations, but not poorer countries nor the U.S.--to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with a new document to supplement it.

A member of the Chinese delegation said the country stands by the position that provisions under the Kyoto Protocol must be respected in any new pact. But U.S. negotiators have said they won't support subsidies for China. The U.S. also never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, in part because U.S. lawmakers objected to the proposal that rich nations should accept steady cuts in their use of fossil fuels, while China, India and other developing nations wouldn't face such restrictions and could, in theory, continue to expand their manufacturing at the expense of U.S. rivals.

Another sensitive issue in the Copenhagen talks surfaced Monday as China lashed out at the U.N. office in charge of approving carbon credits after it rejected 10 Chinese wind farm projects earlier this month and accused China of fudging the numbers to make them eligible for international subsidies.

'If you reject wind power, what else is there?' said Sun Cuihua, an official at the National Reform and Development Commission which overseas the U.N.-sanctioned clean development mechanism that creates carbon credits.

Under the CDM mechanism, rich countries can invest in carbon-abatement projects in poor countries and get carbon credits that can be traded.

'They say that we made up the electricity prices; that is not a responsible thing to say,' Ms. Sun told reporters at a meeting where Chinese windfarm owners and developers issued a statement protesting the U.N. decision.

Even the G-77 isn't in total harmony as it heads into the final stretch of this meeting.

Saudi Arabia and Brazil sparred Monday over carbon capture and sequestration, something the kingdom is pushing to shore up its own emission-reduction efforts, according to an official from a G-77 nation familiar with the matter.

Brazil is concerned that CCS could dent its biofuels industry, as nations opt to burn more fossil fuels and bury emissions underground, rather than burn clean-burning biofuels such as ethanol, of which Brazil is a leader.

Alessandro Torello / Spencer Swartz


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