Cuba Calls Rich Nations to Adopt Commitments in Cancun

Cancun, Mexico, Dec 9. -Cuba demanded on Wednesday responsibility from the most polluting countries in the planet and considered necessary for them to adopt new commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions.

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"It is necessary, a matter of urgency to adopt here in Cancun concrete decisions on a second period of commitments of Kyoto, as there is a group of developed countries in this same negotiation process trying to destroy the Kyoto Protocol," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced in the high level segment of the 16th UN Environmental Summit.

Rodriguez also said that it is essential to define funding mechanisms that are not created within the World Bank or any other institution of the Bretton Woods system, as it would entail conditions, discrimination and exclusions.

"The Bretton Woods institutions are as historically responsible of climate change as are the governments of developed countries," he stated.

According to Rodriguez, at least a clear, precise road map to solve main climate change issues must come out of Cancun for the next climate summit to be held in Durban, South Africa, in a year.

He said that fighting climate change involves addressing poverty and social inequality and the obligation to transfer technology from the industrialized North to the underdeveloped South.

It also implies facilitating financial resources that allow developing economies to face adaptation and mitigation, and providing fresh funds above existing commitments, which are ever increasingly poor and conditional on official development assistance.

He recalled that the meeting in Copenhagen failed a year ago, as it did not respond to expectations of reaching a global agreement to confront climate change fairly and effectively. 

"Undemocratic procedures and a total lack of transparency prevailed there," he noted.

The UN climate summit is scheduled to conclude on Friday, and is yet to be known if any concrete is taken towards a second period of commitment of the Kyoto Protocol.(Prensa Latina)