Planet depends on usBy CAROL MATROO Saturday, November 28 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday said if countries do not reach an agreement on climate change at the United Nations (UN) talks in Copenhagen in December, then the meeting would be an historic failure.
“Either we take all the decisions or we take none. Copenhagen is 20 days ahead of us and we can no longer afford to be unambitious. The planet depends on this,” Sarkozy said during a news conference at the International Financial Centre in Port-of-Spain yesterday.
Sarkozy arrived yesterday morning from Brazil after climate talks with that country’s president Luis Inacio Lula De Silva.
Although France is not a member of the Commonwealth, Sarkozy had requested to be given a chance to speak at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which began yesterday at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain.
This was the first time that a French president had been invited to speak at a CHOGM.
Before addressing reporters, Sarkozy had a face-to-face meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which he said was interesting and productive.
Sarkozy said he was confident that India and its prime minister would be at Copenhagen for talks on the reduction of carbon emissions.
“We have entered into a very active negotiation phase.”
He said Singh disclosed India would soon reveal its plans to curb carbon emissions and believed that it was in India’s best interest to take part in the meeting. With over one billion people, India is the only major greenhouse gas emitting nation that has not yet revealed its plans to curb carbon emissions before talks begin in Copenhagen on December 7. The talks end on December 18.
“You would agree with me that it’s up to the Indian Prime Minister to announce what his position is on emissions and on Copenhagen, but I did make a point that we needed him to be there and that he had nothing to lose and everything to win, to gain by him being there.”
He added Singh had indicated that India would not produce more carbon than the average carbon production of other countries and that India would never stand in the way of an agreement in Copenhagen
Asked to comment on the irony of trying to reduce carbon emissions and Trinidad and Tobago’s intention of building a smelter plant, a plan which has provoked many protests by the people of this country, Sarkozy said no country should have to choose between growth and the environment.
“Copenhagen doesn’t mean the opposite of growth for the countries that need it. Nobody should have to choose between sustainable growth and the environment.
“China and the United States alone account for almost 50 percent of carbon emissions which is not the case for India, and whatever the significance for Trinidad and Tobago, I don’t think Trinidad and Tobago is at risk of upsetting the world’s carbon balance,” he said. Sarkozy also said that in agreement with Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown it was suggested that at the end of the Copenhagen meeting US$10 billion be mobilised to provide financial aid to the poorest countries, 20 percent of which would be earmarked for combating deforestation which was one of the culprits in the fight against carbon emissions.
He said India would be eligible for additional financing. “India is a poor country. India must and deserves to be helped. With France, India has a very important agreement with respect to nuclear technology. I will be going to India next March, beginning of April to sign all these important agreements,” he said.
Asked if there would be a negative impact on the UN climate talks in the Dutch capital if US President Barack Obama did not attend, Sarkozy said, “You cannot let the affairs of the world boil down to a single head of state.”
Sarkozy said he had met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and it was agreed that the decisive time for the issue to be addressed in Copenhagen was December 17 and 18.
“December 17 and 18 is the arbitration time. Heads of government have to be there at the same time in order to discuss, negotiate, find solutions, but if all of us are not there at the same time, then what kinds of solutions could we possibly come up with?”
Sarkozy said in Copenhagen, the leaders must decide what policies they should adopt before they were entered into, and suggested that a world environmental organisation be set up.
