They said agreement on the Adaptation Fund -- worth just $80 million -- was a bad omen at the halfway mark in two years of negotiations towards a new treaty designed to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 to fight global warming.
"We are so sad and so disappointed," Colombian Environment Minister Juan Lozano said of the Dec. 1-12 talks, which went on into the early hours of Saturday.
"The human side of climate change is the suffering of our orphans and our victims and that was not considered here. It's a bad signal on the road to Copenhagen," he said.
"I must say that this is one of the saddest moments I have witnessed in all these years," Indian representative Prodipto Ghosh told delegates at the 189-nation talks, adding he had attended U.N. meetings for 12 years.
"In the face of the unbearable human tragedy that we in the developing countries see unfolding every day this is nothing but callousness, strategising," he said. Several other nations including Brazil, Costa Rica and Maldives made similar remarks.
Many delegates expressed hopes that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama would adopt more aggresive climate policies.
Environment ministers at the talks in Poland set rules for the Adaptation Fund, which is meant to help poor nations build flood defences, develop drought-resistant crops, and produce storm warnings.
The fund, among few points agreed at the meeting, has just $80 million but could rise to $300 million a year by 2012. The developing nations accused the rich of blocking talks on wider funding. The issue was delayed until 2009.
COSTLY CONFERENCE
U.N. projections are that poor nations will need tens of billions of dollars a year by 2030 to cope with climate change. Poland spent 24 million euros ($31.84 million) just to host the Dec. 1-12 conference.
"It is obvious that the existing amount of money for the Adapation Fund ... is much too low," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
Developing nations won streamlined access to funds while rich nations secured controls to ensure cash was properly spent.
Overshadowed by worries about a global recession, the main task of the meeting was to review progress towards a sweeping new global climate treaty in Copenhagen in December 2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
"We are desperately disappointed with the progress here," said Stephanie Tunmore of the Greenpeace environmental group. "The stocktaking bit wasn't difficult: 'What did we do in 2008? Not much'."
Environmentalists accused Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand of blocking progress and failing to set ambitious new goals to cut emissions. By contrast, countries including Mexico, China and South Africa laid out ideas to curb rising emissions.
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the talks were on track.
"Everyone said the fight against climate change is consistent with tackling the economic crisis," he said. Many delegates said stimulus packages to end the global economic crisis could help create millions of green jobs.
European Union ministers in Poznan expressed relief after EU leaders in Brussels agreed a pact on Friday to cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- after making costly concessions to east European countries.
The U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said the talks achieved the main goals of agreeing a plan of work towards Copenhagen.
Under the Adaptation Fund, cash is raised by a 2 percent levy on a U.N. system of projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions in poor nations. The levy has raised 60 million euros ($80 million) so far.
Negotiators also agreed measures to speed up approval of projects such as cutting greenhouse gases from factories in China or building windmills in Morocco.
Source: Reuters
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