UN Climate Talks Move Backwards

	UN Climate Talks Move Backwards: Developed States Refuse Meaningful Action
	Youth attending the Warsaw Conference staged protests singling out Canada and Australia. The 19th UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw in November opened in the wake of  super typhoon Haiyan with Yeb Saño’s moving speech pledging to fast “until a meaningful outcome is in sight”. The conference was a dramatic spectacle of confrontations between industrial greenhouse gas contributing countries and low-income countries most affected by those emissions, highlighted by the walk-out of 130 low income countries whose joint statement described it as “a conference focused on profits at the expense of Mother Earth.” As KAIROS partner Tetet Nera-Lauron from IBON in the Philippines stated, “The diluted language of the conference outcome presents a growing problem for poor countries that are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. It allows further leeway for developed nations to backtrack on their commitments and effectively weakens the position of developing countries that struggle every year from the damages of climate catastrophes.“ KAIROS’ Ecological Economy Program Coordinator John Dillon reviews the unfortunate outcome of this conference in this article.

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