EnviromediaNews

SA-sponsored climate deal a “suicide pact”

A climate deal agreed to by South Africa in secret negotiations with the US and three other countries would doom Africa to a “holocaust”, according a top African climate negotiator.

Chief negotiator for the G77 group of poorer nations Lumumba Di-Aping said the agreement was “a solution based on the same very values, in our opinion, that channelled six million people in Europe into furnaces”.

Addressing the final full session of the conference,  Di-Aping said Africa was being asked “to sign a suicide pact, an incineration pact in order to maintain the economic dependence of a few countries”.

The agreement would “definitely result in massive devastation in Africa and small island states”.

Delegates from Africa and other developing countries accused South Africa of undermining the unity of the poorer nations by agreeing to the deal, brokered in backroom meetings that included China, Brazil and India.

The agreement recognises the scientific case for keeping temperature increases below 2C, but fails to commit signatories to the emissions reductions required to meet that target.

The refusal of some countries to sign the agreement means it is not legally binding.

The South African delegation has admitted that it doesn’t understand the agreement it helped broker.

The deal, the only one on the table at the plenary session, has also been slammed by the DA and local environmental NGOs.

The opposition spokesperson on the environment, Gareth Morgan, described it as “unacceptable” while Earthlife Africa said they were “disappointed”. It was far less than they hoped for, according to spokesperson Richard Worthington.

The executive director of Greenpeace UK, John Sauven, described Copenhagen as “a crime scene”.

“It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen,” he said. – enviromedianews