Raila pushes Kenya team to fight for fair accord

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday urged Kenyan negotiators not to relent in the quest for a fair deal at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Mr Odinga said as they championed Kenya’s interests, they should stand with the rest of Africa, which has borne the biggest brunt of climate change.
“Our voices will be much louder if we stand united,” Mr Odinga told the delegates representing Kenya at the epic summit that comes to an end next week.

“We must stop the blame game…there will definitely be differences among you and other negotiators but we need to be diplomatic if we are to succeed.

“Failure is not an option for us in Kenya, Africa and the world. We may not achieve everything, there will be contentious issues but we must succeed,” he said.

The meeting is expected to come up with a deal that will supplant the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Heavy burden

The protocol, which came into force in 2005 and was ratified by 148 parties, places a heavy burden on industrialised countries and sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, now accepted as the major cause of global warming.

Mr Odinga said the time to act against climate change was now, adding that failure to act will “spell doom” for countries like the Maldives, Vanuatu and others, which risk being submerged.
“Even our Mombasa will not be spared. It also risks sinking,” he said.

Studies indicate that 17 per cent of the Mombasa area could be submerged by a global sea level rise of up to 30cm.

At the conference venture, sharp divisions between developed and developing countries over the possible shape of the new deal persisted.

Briefing the PM on the negotiations, Ms Grace Akumu, Kenya’s technical advisor on climate change issues, said developed countries were “shifting goal posts on a number of issues” including figures on emissions reduction.

“They want the figures not to be included under the Kyoto Protocol but long term cooperative action and we are opposed to this. We feel this is a repetition of the talks in Barcelona, Spain a few months ago,” she said.

“Developed countries must commit… the survival of African countries depends on it. If this does not happen, then we are likely to witness more of the negative effects of climate change like more floods and droughts,” Ms Akumu said.

The emergence of leaked documents — the so-called Danish text — that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations has also been raised an uproar.

Source:.nation.co.ke/