"Vanuatu’s foreign minister says worst offenders on global warming are blocking progress"
"The United States and other high carbon dioxide-emitting developed countries are deliberately frustrating the UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, Vanuatu’s foreign minister has said. His warning came as Pacific and Indian ocean states warned they faced annihilation if a global climate “rule book” could not [be] brokered.
In a bruising speech before ministers and heads of state, Vanuatu’s foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu, singled out the US as he excoriated major CO2-emitting developed countries for deliberately hindering negotiations.
“It pains me deeply to have watched the people of the United States and other developed countries across the globe suffering the devastating impacts of climate-induced tragedies, while their professional negotiators are here at COP24 putting red lines through any mention of loss and damage in the Paris guidelines and square brackets around any possibility for truthfully and accurately reporting progress against humanity’s most existential threat,” he said."
Ben Doherty reports for the Guardian December 11, 2018.
SEE ALSO:
"UN Chief Returns As Climate Talks Teeter Closer To Collapse" (AP)
"Katowice: Africa Group of Nations Boycott Talks At Negotiator Levels" (Business Standard)
"Australia's Silence During Climate Change Debate Shocks COP24 Delegates" (Guardian)
"UN Science Panel Chief Calls For More Action To Curb Warming" (AP)
