Almost 200 countries are gathered in Doha, Qatar for the latest climate change summit.<\/p>\n
The annual talks have already agreed that global temperature rise should be kept to a minimum of 2C by cutting carbon emissions.<\/p>\n
There is also agreement to provide money to help poor countries adapt to climate change.<\/p>\n
But as the latest science suggests global warming looks set to go above the 2C “tipping point”, a group of charities are calling for a new agreement on \u0093damage and loss.<\/p>\n
WWF, ActionAid and Care are calling for negotiators to take into account the permanent damage that could be done by climate change. <\/p>\n
For example sea level rise that could make it impossible to live on low lying islands, persistent drought could mean farmland is no longer productive. Glacial retreat could mean whole areas no longer have a fresh water supply.<\/p>\n
The report, launched in Doha, suggests an \u0093international mechanism on compensation and rehabilitation. This could mean setting up a \u0091climate change insurance fund’ that would pay out according to damage.<\/p>\n
The talks also need to consider new international agreements on how to resettle \u0093climate change refugees, people who have lost their homes due to climate change.<\/p>\n
\u0093We have transcended the era of mitigation and adaptation \u0096 this is now the new era of loss and damage, read the report.<\/p>\n
\u0093To rectify and redress the situation, developed countries have an urgent legal and moral obligation to undertake urgent and dramatic mitigation action.<\/p>\n
\u0093They must also provide enhanced support for the prevention and avoidance of loss and damage, as well as compensation and rehabilitation for loss and damage caused by both their action an inaction.<\/p>\n
Tensions between rich and poor nations are growing at the fortnight-long talks, that end on 07 December.<\/p>\n
The process is working towards an international treaty that will commit most countries, including the US and China, to cutting emissions from 2020.<\/p>\n
A key plank of any global deal will be \u0091climate finance’ to help poor countries cope with climate change and switch to renewable energy.<\/p>\n
As part of that \u00a330bn was pledged between 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n
But Mithika Mwenda, the Coordinator of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, claimed that most of the money was from existing aid budgets and therefore taking money away from other projects.<\/p>\n
\u0093This is totally unacceptable and demonstrates lack of integrity in the negotiations, thereby promoting mistrust in the already fragile multilateral negotiations.<\/p>\n
A Green Climate Fund has also been agreed that will build up climate finance to \u00a3100bn per year by 2020.<\/p>\n
Tim Gore of Oxfam said poor nations need to know how this money will be provided and scaled up.<\/p>\n
He warned that without reassurance the talks could collapse.<\/p>\n
Mr Gore also said rich countries need to show commitment to cutting carbon.<\/p>\n
The EU could do this my signing up to cuts as part of a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2012 onwards. The bloc is currently split over whether to count the cut in pollution after the collapse of the Soviet Union, known as ‘hot air’.<\/p>\n
The Middle East, including Qatar, could also show commitment by coming up with voluntary targets to cut carbon by 2020.<\/p>\n
\u0093We are way off track to even avoid 2C and already seeing climate impacts, said Mr Gore.<\/p>\n
\u0093The international community need to respond by taking action at these talks.”<\/p>\n
Yvo de Boer, KPMG’s Special Advisor on Climate Change & Sustainability, was optimistic.<\/p>\n
A recent UN report warned even the most ambitious pledges on the table were not enough to stop 2C warming \u0096 but pointed out the target could be met with more effort.<\/p>\n
\u0093When you consider that last year the entire structure of multilateral climate negotiations was under threat, the fact that we are now talking about filling the gaps in the structure is a sign of real progress.<\/p>\n
Telegraph Media Group Limited 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":26792,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177],"tags":[306,381],"region":[26],"source":[468],"country":[],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/37083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/37083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37083"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=37083"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=37083"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=37083"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=37083"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=37083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}