International Body Criticizes Developed States' Broken Climate Vows

Doha, December 07 (QNA) - The Third World Network (TWN), an international non-profit body active on civil society matters, criticized some developed countries on Friday during the Doha climate talks for falling short on pledges to cut emissions, and providing developing countries with technological support as well as other intellectual property-related issues. At a press conference held today, on the sidelines of 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP18) currently in progress in Doha, negotiation expert, Meena Raman reiterated that the developing countries must keep on pushing the developed ones to stay committed to their pledges rather than only accepting nonbinding blueprints to offer support. She said they are still waiting to see the outcomes of the financing talks which, according to her, show poor results. However, Raman hoped Doha talks would come into fruition on all levels. She underlined the challenges that face long-term collaboration between the developing and developed countries. "We, (negotiation advisers) see the developed countries' rejection of many points as the main block in the way," the negotiation expert said. One of these challenges is the lack of attention to resolve the issue of intellectual property regarding technology transfer, and which has stirred debate during the Doha talks. Raman believed the United States was clearly avoiding any indications to this issue in the final draft conclusion of COP18. She said the developing countries were yet looking forward to keeping the member countries of Kyoto protocol committed to cutting emissions. They hoped the non-member states would do the same in accordance to what science arrived to in terms of target major economic requirements. However, none of these aspirations were referred to in the final draft. She pointed out that the final draft has only requested the developed countries to aim for a higher emission cut target. The negotiation expert added the draft didn't comprise binding agreements in this regard between member and non-member countries of Kyoto Protocol. It only referred to some coordinated efforts. (QNA)