14 December 2007

As talks move into their final hours it has become clear that the interests of the 100 countries most vulnerable to climate change – the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and Africa – are being pushed into the sidelines.

Countries such as Bangladesh, Fiji and Malawi are collectively responsible for only 3.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 4.5% for India, 15.3% for China, 23.3% for the US and 24.7% for the EU.

With their greenhouse gas emissions so small, these 100 countries can do little to prevent or mitigate climate change.

Yet as arguments intensify over the so called “mitigation range” – whether rich countries should make binding commitments to a 25-40% carbon cut by 2020 – the urgent adaptation needs of the countries which are being hit first and worst by climate change are being forgotten.

A negotiator from Africa who asked not to be named said: “We do not have the capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change on our own. Without our rightful share of finance from the big polluting countries millions of our people will be condemned to a bleak future.”

ActionAid’s head of policy in Asia, Rashed Titumir, a Bangladeshi citizen said: “It’s high noon for Bali. We have a very late chance to make difference, but without a fair deal for the world’s poorest countries it will be almost impossible to avert a development disaster.”