PNG PM Michael Somare launched the attack in a lead up to a crucial United Nations meeting on climate change in Copenhagen, which starts on 07 December.
“The targets proposed by the United States of only 3 percent below 1990, by 2020 is not only irresponsibly low; it is also quite unacceptable,” Somare said in a statement. The “stakes are too high,” he added
“Places like the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati and many small island states in our region, are already suffering the obvious negative effects of global warming,” he said.
“While the developed and industrialized nations are dragging their feet in committing themselves, PNG and other smaller states continue to witness instances of islands disappearing, food shortages due to soil erosion and salinity, and irregular weather patterns,” he added.
Somare urged the Commonwealth to call on U.S. President Barack Obama to improve American policy.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, also at the meeting in the dual island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, said world leaders could approve a Copenhagen deal.
“I can’t predict the outcome, but there are available to us the resources, political will and policy instruments to craft an effective Copenhagen agreement,” Rudd said.
There is great doubt a tangible result will come from the Copenhagen talks but Somare said a “legally binding agreement” is possible.
“This agreement would secure a path to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, and roll back atmospheric carbon concentration to 350 parts per million,” he said.
“We need to aim for the aggregate range of 25-40 percent for our deep emission reductions as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” he added.
PNG’s U.N. Ambassador for Climate Change and Environment Kevin Conrad achieved international notoriety at the Bali conference in 2007 when he told the U.S. to either lead the debate or get out of the way.
But PNG’s own climate change efforts have also been marred by a series of scandals in which “carbon cowboys” and government officials are now under investigation for a raft of dubious carbon trade deals.
