VENEZUELA APPALLED BY COPENHAGEN FAILURE TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE SERIOUSLY‏

Venezuela has expressed deep disappointment with the Copenhagen talks on climate change. President Chavez stated that developed countries - especially the US – should have acted more decisively as they bear the major historic responsibility for causing climate change.

In his speech to the Copenhagen conference (which can be viewed here or read here) Hugo Chavez highlighted that “the 500 million richest people.. seven percent of the world’s population.. is responsible for 50 percent of emissions, while the poorest 50 percent accounts for only seven percent of emissions.”

As a result, President Chavez added, "Developed countries should set binding, clear and concrete commitments for the substantial reduction of their emissions and assume obligations of financial and technological assistance to poor countries to cope with the destructive dangers of climate change."

President Chávez also expressed agreement with protesters who had held placards saying: 'If climate were a bank, it would already have been saved.'

Venezuela is a signatory to the Kyoto Agreement along with fellow members of ALBA such as Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua. All had demanded a much stronger action to tackle climate change.

A press conference of the ALBA nations following the Copenhagen talks was addressed Bolivian President Evo Morales along with senior figures from Cuba and Nicaragua as well as by Hugo Chavez. Evo Morales expressed opposition to the inadequate level of funding developing agreed at the conference stating "proposing 10billion, 20billion dollars here, perhaps solves the political problems of a President, but does not solve the problems of people’s lives on Earth". He also opposed the manner of the last minute deal being 'parachuted' in by developed nations, when working groups have been making preparations for the summit for over two years, and that this undermining of the process led to what Bolivia sees as a completely inadequate agreement. Samuel Santos Lopez, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua expressed concern at the lack of scrutiny in the proposals to ensure that carbon emissions are actually reduced asking "who's going to enforce that?..."

President Chavez stressed how it was not the poorer nations who had caused climate change saying " The US is responsible for 25% of the world's carbon emissions ... it's not us in Venezuela, we only emit 0.4% of the emissions on the planet - we're reducing. Cuba doesn't even come to 0.1%. In the ALBA group we don't even add up together to 1%. It's they who are destroying the planet: the advanced, developed, capitalist countries."

Such a position, of course, does not mean that Venezuela and other ALBA countries do not recognise their own responsibilities to assist in tackling climate change. Indeed within Venezuela itself the government has made great strides in environmental policy and now over 70% of domestic energy needs being met by hydroelectric power.

Nevertheless, the Guardian (21 December) reported that “Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba” has “tried to resist a deal being signed” at Copenhagen and other media outlets have made similar claims giving the impression that they were opposed to a deal and do not take climate change seriously. This totally misrepresents the role of these nations who made clear they were actually raising their objections to the inadequacies of the actual measures proposed and not a deal per se.


FURTHER PIECES OF INTEREST REGARDING VENEZUELA AND COPHENHAGEN CAN BE FOUND AT THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

· Chavez speech in full with English subtitles: http://www.vicuk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=593&Itemid=30

· Chavez article on Copenhagen: "The Battle of Copenhagen" http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5023

· "Chavez and Morales Lash Out at Indistrialized North": http://www.ips.org/TV/copenhagen/chavez-and-morales-last-out-at-industrialised-north/

· Evo Morales President of Bolivia in Copenhagen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rww7BPLDSOk

· Evo Morales: "Shameful" For West to Spend US$ Trillions On War and Only US$10 Billion For Climate Change" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzn4cfuugzY

· "South Africa blasts Copenhagen's failure": http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/live/article/404075--south-africa-blasts-copenhagen-s-failure-says-host-bears-part-of-blame

· "Brazil Lula blasts US performance at Copenhagen conference": http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/22/content_12686179.htm