Commonwealth nations unite to combat climate change

[Stacey King]

Sydney Morning Herald ANNE DAVIES IN PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD November 29, 2009

The 52 Commonwealth nations will go to a summit in Copenhagen united in their determination to forge a meaningful agreement to combat climate change.

They have backed plans for a $US10 billion ($11 billion) Copenhagen Launch Fund, which will be used to immediately assist the most vulnerable countries against the effects of global warming.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who chaired the work of drawing up the communique, described it as a " substantive document", which would provide momentum and support for a substantial outcome in Copenhagen.

"What the Commonwealth has done is throw its whole weight behind the process chaired by Danish Prime Minister [Lars] Rasmussen," he said.

"The Commonwealth represents one-third of human kind; it represents some of the largest countries in the world, some of the smallest, some of the richest, some of the poorest," Mr Rudd said.

The consensus agreement was also welcomed by the United Nations's Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon and Mr Rasmussen, who will host the final UN talks on a new climate change policy in just seven days time.

Mr Rasmussen said he was delighted that 90 world leaders had now agreed to attend in Copenhagen.

The document commits all Commonwealth countries to the goal of an operationally binding agreement at Copenhagen and a full legally binding outcome no later than 2010.

"In Copenhagen we commit to focus our efforts on achieving the strongest possible outcome," the communique says.

The words are significant because both India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, were part of the consensus decision.

India has now made it clear it will not stand in the way of the agreement.

Mr Harper, who has yet to announce his country's proposed cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, has been a critic at times of the Copenhagen process.

While the communique does not advance talks on specific targets or binding reductions that Commonwealth countries will agree to, it does commit to the need for "an early peaking year".

The UN negotiators, recognising that countries will present all different paths to curb their greenhouse gases before 2020, are seeking to get developed and developing countries to agree to a year when the world's emissions will peak.

That would involve the developed nations implementing cuts straight away, but also involve developing nations committing to cuts to business as usual and ultimately agreeing to a year when they would begin to reduce their emissions as well.

The Copenhagen Launch Fund is designed to deal with the urgent problems faced by some nations, like Kiribati, Maldives, Bangladesh and Tuvalu.

The full financing model is still be be hammered out, but on the sidelines there have been detailed discussions on some of the options for developed nations to contribute the billions needed to fund adaption around the world in coming decades.