China lays out conditions for legally binding climate deal
Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China and head of Chinese delegation Xie Zhenhua speaks during the opening of the China's stand in Durban at the UN Climate Change Conference. China's top climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua on Sunday laid out conditions under which Beijing would accept a legally-binding climate deal that would go into force after 2020.Yeah, we'll get right on it.
The conditions included a renewal of carbon-cutting pledges by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol, along with hundreds of billions of dollars in short- and long-term climate financing for poorer countries.
"I think after 2020 we should also negotiate a legally-binding document," Xie told a group of NGOs at talks in Durban under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"The problem now is that we have to see whether we have conscientiously implemented the legal documents we already have agreement on. This is a very important issue for us," he said through an official Chinese translator.
The 194-nation talks, which wrap up Friday, are abuzz with speculation on the prospect of a "Durban accord"....MORE
...So-called “fast start” climate financing for poorer countries of $30 billion for the period of 2010 to 2012 must also be delivered, Xie said.
Likewise a Green Climate Fund that would ramp up to $100 billion per year by 2020.
These include initiatives for technology transfer, adaptation -- helping vulnerable nations cope with impacts -- and new rules for verifying that carbon-cutting promises are kept.
Finally, China insists that a review of climate science begin as planned in 2013, and that established principles in which historical responsibility for creating the problem of climate change, and the respective capacity of countries to fight it, are respected...
This technique is negotiation with the intent to fail.
See you next year in Qatar for the next confab.
