Durban climate blog: DAY 9

The ‘high level segment’ of the climate talks officially opens this afternoon, and first to address the conference is President Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.

It’s fitting that we hear from Ethiopia first- a country ravaged by climate change, where drought and famine are destroying lives, right now, while certain member states at the UN continue to drag their feet.

I met this morning with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) to discuss where we are in the talks and how to go forward. While it looks like we may get some progress on funding to help people in developing countries adapt, the discussions on the Kyoto Protocol and industrialised countries’ emissions reductions targets are still looking daunting. The message from PACJA was that there has to be progress on both. One delegate from Ethiopia said: “They can’t solve this by saying-’ok, we’ll give you some money but we won’t reduce our own emissions’. We need progress on both. If they don’t reduce, we’ll see a rise in temperature across the globe of 4degrees. And in Africa it will be 7degrees.”

Amidst the increasing frustration from developing countries here in Durban, and a lack of ambition from industrialised nations, I was pleased to see the First Minister giving a speech in China today, touching on some central themes: recognition of the clear links between dangerous climate change, poverty and human rights, the severity and disproportionate impact borne by women in developing countries, and the moral duty of industrialised countries, which created anthropogenic climate change, to take urgent action.

But the speech comes against a backdrop of powerful nations seeking to delay key decisions to save our planet. The hope of having the Green Climate Fund set up and ready to go by the end of the Durban conference is stil alive, but we need to see money on the table. The EU is being pushed to progress on Kyoto regardless of powerful member states like the US trying to delay. As the Ethiopian delegate in this morning’s meeting said- there has to be progress on both emissions and financing. And now the high-level segment of the negotiations have begun, and world leaders have arrived to make decisions, we urge them to do just that: decide, and lead.

• Lexi Barnett works for SCIAF and is representing Stop Climate Chaos Scotland while in Durban