African nations stage Barcelona climate talks protest

Rumbling discontent over industrialised nations' reluctance to commit to ambitious carbon emission targets reached a climax today, when delegates from about 50 African countries attending the latest round of UN talks in Barcelona forced the cancellation of several key meetings in protest at the negotiating position of richer nations.

According to Associated Press reports, the technical meetings, which were intended to help finalise the draft negotiating text ahead of next month's Copenhagen Summit, were suspended when African negotiators said they were only willing to discuss the carbon emission pledges currently tabled by industrialised countries.

Meetings intended to discuss which greenhouse gases should be regulated, how to account for forest-related emission reductions, and how to manage industrialised countries' investments in low-carbon technologies in developing economies were all affected by the boycott.

Several delegates warned that unless the standoff is resolved, the row could further diminish the chances of a deal being reached in Copenhagen next month.

Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, told Reuters that he sympathised with the protest, but warned that any move to block negotiations would "certainly not get us to a result".

However, poorer nations are increasingly frustrated at the position taken by richer countries which they accuse of failing to do enough to help tackle climate change.

"Africa believes that the other groups are not taking talks seriously enough, not urgently enough," Kabeya Tshikuku of the Democratic Republic of Congo delegation told Reuters.

The UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended that industrialised nations should commit to cutting emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020 if they want to stand a reasonable chance of limiting temperature increases to two degrees.

But despite publicly committing to the two-degree target, only Japan and Norway have to date matched or exceeded the IPCC's recommendations, while the EU has said it will cut emissions 30 per cent if other large emitters sign up to ambitious emission targets.

Meanwhile, the US climate change bill, which is still being debated by the Senate, would deliver emission reductions of just four per cent on 1990 levels, while Canada, Russia and Australia have also all failed to match the IPCC's recommendations.

Frustration at the industrialised nations' refusal to follow scientific advice now appears to have reached its zenith among some of those African nations that will be worst affected by climate change.

The protests will further fuel speculation that many poorer nations are now willing to make good on long-standing threats to boycott the Copenhagen process unless more ambitious commitments are delivered.

The moves come just a day after negotiators from the UN and EU stepped up calls for the US to provide a detailed commitment to cutting carbon emissions ahead of the Copenhagen Summit or risk the talks failing.