More than 130 of the world’s poorest nations have sought to pressure richer countries to agree new legally-binding goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by threatening to deny them access to cheap U.N. carbon credits, potentially making it more expensive for them to meet domestic emission goals.
The offsets, of which 995 million have been issued, have made it cheaper for governments and companies in industrialised nations to meet emissions targets through paying for low-cost emission reductions in the developing world instead of making more expensive cuts at home.
But the so-called group of 77 countries and China told delegates at U.N. talks in Thailand this week that access to credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) should be limited to nations that agree to cap emissions under the Kyoto Protocol starting next year.
“Our view, shared by more than 130 developing countries, is that industrialised countries cannot benefit from emissions trading and credits under the Kyoto Protocol if they’re unwilling to commit to legally binding targets,” said Sai Navoti, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
“We won’t allow them to walk away, taking only the bits they like,” he told Reuters Point Carbon.
Developing countries plan to amend the Kyoto Protocol to implement the ban at U.N. climate talks in Doha starting in November.
Cutoff from buying indulgences from the UN?
WHAH!!!
This appears to me one of the things that the Founding Fathers worried about in pure democracy, “Tyranny of the Majority”, where the majority can make the minority do whatever they want.
I have to say, here, the only winning move is not to play.