U.N. climate talks in final stage, Gore calls for solid deal in 2009

POZNAN, Poland, Dec. 12 Kyodo - U.N. climate change talks were moving into the final stage Friday, as former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore called for speeding up U.N. negotiations for a new climate pact so they will conclude as planned at a key meeting in Copenhagen next December.
''I say it can be done, it must be done. Let's finish this process at
Copenhagen,'' Gore said in a speech on the final day of a two-day U.N. climate
change ministerial meeting in Poznan, Poland. ''Don't take the pressure off.
Let's make sure that we succeed.''
Gore requested that heads of state ''become personally involved in meeting
several times between Poznan and Copenhagen.''
''I don't think that they can stay disengaged from this process any longer,''
he said.
Gore made the pitch as industrial and developing countries clashed over
expanding a U.N. fund to help poor countries adapt to the impact of climate
change.
Developing countries were calling for increased contributions to significantly
expand the annual support provided to a so-called Adaptation Fund from the
currently envisaged level of $200 million-$680 million, but developed countries
are opposed partly due to fiscal constraints.
Developing countries argue that $680 million is insufficient to deal with the
impacts of rising seas, droughts, floods and heat waves. The U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change calls for an expansion in annual funding to
''hundreds of billions of dollars.''
Delegates were striving to strike a compromise on a proposal by China and the
G-77, a group of developing nations, and another by the European Union backed
by other developed countries.
''It is very important that we find the solution to operationalize the fund
here in Poznan,'' European Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas said.
''It seems to me that we are very close to this. There is only one paragraph
open to discussions.
''I'm optimistic that we can find a good solution for this today,'' Dimas told
reporters.
Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia of Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation at risk from
rising sea levels, expressed ''deep worry'' over progress in negotiations on
the fund at the 14th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, or
COP14, in Poznan.
Ielemia said the Adaptation Fund is a ''survival fund'' for Tuvalu and many
other vulnerable countries.
''It seems (however) that some key industrialized countries are trying to make
the Adaptation Fund inaccessible to the most in need,'' Ielemia told the
plenary session of the Poznan talks on Thursday. ''The most vulnerable
countries to the impacts of climate change must be able to access this fund
without delay.''
Environmentalists urged developed countries to respond to the developing
countries' demand, saying it would be difficult for poor nations to consider
greenhouse gas emissions reductions or other climate policies without such
assistance.
Separately, Vietnam proposed that the 10 largest developed country emitters set
up a ''special support program'' for Vietnam and four other countries most
affected by rising sea levels.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said he wants to see the program
launched at the COP15 U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen in December
2009. The sea level in Vietnam, a major rice exporting nation, has risen by 20
centimeters over the past 50 years, he said.
==Kyodo