Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Despite the overall failure to achieve their stated goals, the now concluded Bangkok climate conference actually made some progress – they all agreed to jointly attack the USA for not providing all the climate cash and free technology transfers demanded by delegates.

Meet fails to agree climate change rules

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Espinosa [UNFCCC Executive Secretary] said there was “limited progress” on the issue of contributions from developed nations to developing countries, adding that she is “hopeful” that future discussions will be productive because of the importance of the issue.

“On the core issues of forward-looking climate finance and the degree of flexibility developing countries should be given on the information and reporting requirements for national commitments under the Paris Agreement, negotiators were stalemated in Bangkok,” said a statement from Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US-based activist group.

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But he said wealthy and developed countries “led by the United States and including countries such as Australia, Japan and even the European Union” refused to clearly show “how much money they are going to provide and how that is going to be counted”.

Activists were critical of Washington’s lobbying at the meeting, especially because President Donald Trump has announced plans to have the US withdraw from the Paris pact, which had been heavily promoted by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

“The US has announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement but still negotiates as if it is a party, weakening international co-operation by not contributing to finance and technology transfer to developing countries,” Meena Raman, legal adviser at Third World Network, said in an emailed statement.