UN Climate talks near failure - Developed nations ( in particular US and EU ) are de facto broke and won't commit to actually paying developing nations 100 billion by 2020 or 60 billion by 2015......Corresponding , note most of the nations emitting the most greenhouse gases aren't committing to cutting back emissions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/08/doha-climate-change-deal-nations

( Why do they have these nothing burger Conferences ? )

Doha climate change deal clears way for 'damage aid' to poor nations

EU, Australia and Norway also sign up to new carbon-cutting targets as fortnight-long conference in Qatar closes

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• Fiona Harvey in Doha
• The Observer, Saturday 8 December 2012 14.19 EST

Delegates attend the last day of the UN climate talks in Doha, where poor nations secured a pledge of 'damage aid'. Photograph: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

Poor countries have won historic recognition of the plight they face from the ravages of climate change, wringing a pledge from rich nations that they will receive funds to repair the "loss and damage" incurred.

This is the first time developing countries have received such assurances, and the first time the phrase "loss and damage from climate change" has been enshrined in an international legal document.

Developing countries had been fighting hard for the concession at the fortnight-long UN climate change talks among 195 nations in Qatar, which finished after a marathon 36-hour final session.

Ronald Jumeau, negotiating for the Seychelles, scolded the US negotiator: "If we had had more ambition [on emissions cuts from rich countries], we would not have to ask for so much [money] for adaptation. If there had been more money for adaptation [to climate change], we would not be looking for money for loss and damage. What's next? Loss of our islands?"

Ruth Davis, political adviser at Greenpeace, said: "This is a highly significant move – it will be the first time the size of the bill for failing to take on climate change will be part of the UN discussions. Countries need to understand the risks they are taking in not addressing climate change urgently."

Ed Davey, the UK energy and climate secretary, said: "It's about helping the most vulnerable countries, and looking at how they can be more resilient."

But the pledges stopped well short of any admission of legal liability or the need to pay compensation on the part of the rich world.

The US had strongly opposed the initial "loss and damage" proposals, which would have set up a new international institution to collect and disperse funds to vulnerable countries. US negotiators also made certain that neither the word "compensation", nor any other term connoting legal liability, was used, to avoid opening the floodgates to litigation – instead, the money will be judged as aid.

Key questions remain unanswered, including whether funds devoted to "loss and damage" will come from existing humanitarian aid and disaster relief budgets. The US is one of the world's biggest donor of humanitarian aid and disaster relief, from both public and private sources. It will be difficult to disentangle damage inflicted by climate change from other natural disasters.

Another question is how the funds will be disbursed. Developing countries wanted a new institution, like a bank, but the US is set against that, preferring to use existing international institutions. These issues will have to be sorted out at next year's climate conference, in Warsaw, where they will be bitterly contested.

Davis said: "This [text] is just the beginning of the process – you need to have a finalised mechanism. But it will concentrate minds on the fact that it is in the best interest of countries all over the world to start cutting their emissions quickly." Governments also rescued the Kyoto protocol, the initial targets of which run out at the end of this year. The EU, Australia, Norway and a handful of other developed countries have agreed to take on new carbon-cutting targets under the treaty, running to 2020.

A separate strand of the negotiations, set up to accommodate the US because of its refusal to ratify Kyoto, was closed. This will allow unified discussions to begin on a global climate treaty that would require both developed and developing countries to cut their emissions. The treaty is supposed to be signed in 2015, at a conference in Paris, and come into effect in 2020.

The next three years of negotiations on the treaty will be the hardest in the 20-year history of climate change talks because the world has changed enormously since 1992, when the UN convention on climate change was signed, and 1997, when the Kyoto protocol enshrined a stark division between developed countries – which were required to cut emissions – and developing countries, which were not.

China was classed then as a developing country, and although it still has about 60 million people living in dire poverty, it is now the world's biggest emitter and will soon overtake the US as the biggest economy. It has made clear its determination to hang on to its developing country status, and that the countries classed as developed in 1997 must continue to bear most of the burden for emissions cuts, and for providing funds to poor countries to help them cut emissions and cope with climate change.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/2012127072125988.html

Deep divisions as UN climate talks near end

Standoff between rich and developing countries remains as the COP18 talks in Qatar enter the final stretch. Last Modified: 07 Dec 2012 01:46 inShare1 Email Print Share Feedback

UN climate talks are heading into the final stretch with a host of issues unresolved, including a standoff over how much money financially stressed rich countries can spare to help the developing world tackle global warming. That issue has overshadowed the talks since they started last week in Qatar, the first Middle Eastern country to host the slow-moving annual negotiations aimed at crafting a global response to climate change. Tensions built up on Thursday - the penultimate day on the schedule - as the Philippines called for action to keep global warming in check, citing the devastation caused by a powerful typhoon that killed about 350 people. "I appeal to the whole world, I appeal to leaders from all over the world, to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face," climate envoy Naderev Sano said to applause from delegates. "An important backdrop for my delegation is the profound impacts of climate change that we are already confronting. As we sit here, every single hour, even as we vacillate and procrastinate here, the death toll is rising." Developed countries, many of which face unpopular austerity measures at home, are being asked to show how they intend to keep a promise to raise climate funding for poor countries to $100bn per year by 2020 - up from a total of $30bn in 2010-2012. 'Promises upon promises' Developing countries say they need at least another $60bn between now and 2015 to deal with the fallout from climate change, such as rising sea levels, and convert to cleaner energy. Follow our in-depth coverage of Doha COP18 negotiations "We are not going to leave here with promises upon promises," said Gambia delegate Pa Ousman Jarju, who represents a group of least developed countries. "The minimum that we can get out of here is a demonstration that there will be $60bn on the table moving onward." The European Union and the United States have refused to put concrete figures on the table in Doha for new 2013-2020 climate funding, even as pledges have trickled in from individual EU member states. National pledges by Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and the EU Commission in Doha totalled more than $8.95bn for the next two years - more than in 2011-12. Only a handful of countries - Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, Belarus and Ukraine - set new goals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions during the Doha meeting. Meanwhile, Greenpeace and five other activist groups accused rich nations of pushing the talks to the "brink of disaster," while a small group of warming sceptics appeared at a side event where they dismissed the entire process as a sham to transfer wealth to the poor world. A British activist even managed to slip into a conference hall where he addressed a plenary session, apparently mistaken for an official delegate. A tweet from the UN climate secretariat said he was "debadged and escorted out" of the venue "for impersonating a party" and violating the conference's code of conduct. UN climate conferences, bringing together nearly 200 nations, are notorious for missing deadlines. From the start, the Doha talks had low ambitions, so failure would be less spectacular than at a UN summit in 2009 when world leaders including US President Barack Obama fell short of a new, global package to combat climate change. and...... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/9727685/Doha-Talks-on-brink-of-collapse-as-anger-rises-against-Qatari-hosts.html By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent, Doha 5:27PM GMT 06 Dec 2012 54 Comments UN climate change talks are at risk of collapse tonight as developing nations object to the refusal of Arab nations to cut carbon emissions and at failure of Western nations to come forward with money for adaptation to global warming. Britain could be forced to dramatically increase its cuts to carbon emissions in order to secure a deal if other countries are unwilling to compromise. Two activists were thrown out of the United Nations talks in Doha, the capital, after attempting to hold up a banner outside the main meeting hall. It called on the tiny oil state to show leadership and cut its emissions. Developing nations are also angry that the rich world has not come forward with money for climate change adaptation. They want $60bn (£37bn) over the next three years to switch to greener forms of energy and protect against floods and drought. Although the UK has pledge £2bn over the next two years other countries, including the United States, have not put any money on the table beyond 2013. Environmentalists are angry that the world has made no further progress on agreeing targets to cut carbon emissions. The EU has said it will sign up targets as part of a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. But this is impossible until the bickering group of countries decide how to divide up cuts in carbon. One option on the table would mean the UK may have to up its current emissions targets from 34 per cent by 2020 to 42 per cent. Meanwhile most of the rest of the developed world has not even put forward any new targets to cut carbon emissions. There is particular anger towards the countries in the Arab world, that many believed would come forward with ambitious targets during the first UN conference to be held in the Middle East. However Qatar has only announced a new research centre on climate change and no new targets. While it emits a large amount of carbon dioxide due to gas flares from oil extraction, it is treated as a developing nation and has not been subjected to curbs on emissions as developed nations have. Ali Fakhry, of the Arab Youth Climate Movement, an organisation set up in the wake of the Arab spring, said it will be “disgrace” if the talks fail to reach an agreement in Doha. “We are starting to believe that hosting the meeting was green wash and PR,” he said. “It is time for Qatar to take the lead and ensure the negotiations do not collapse.” The talks, that are scheduled to finish this Friday, are widely expected to go into the weekend. They may have to reconvene in months if a deal is not struck. As ministers take over from negotiators in an attempt to drive a deal, Greg Barker, the UK Climate Change Minister, said pressure is growing on Qatar. “Clearly now is the time for the Arab regions to step up to the plate and show leadership to bring this meeting to a successful conclusion. The clock is ticking and there are concerns in the least developed countries about finance and mitigation. We desperately need more countries to take action.” It will be a severe embarrassment to Qatar, which is attempting to grow its stature in the world and which will host the World Cup in 2022, if the talks fail. Naderev Sano, chief negotiator for the Philippines, joined a civil society protest against a weak deal after reportedly bursting into tears during a plenary in frustration. He said hundreds of thousands of people in his own country are already suffering from floods and storms caused by climate change. “Based on what we have seen so far and with less than 48 hours to go, a successful ambitious outcome is not in sight," he said. Mohamed Adow, Christian Aid's senior climate change adviser, said he had never seen such outrage at a UN meeting. “The Doha outcome must be both responsive to the scientific need for action and fair to developing countries which didn't cause this problem but are suffering the most severe effects.”