An NGO report has found that key U.N. climate negotiations are institutionally biased against poorer nations, specifically that underdeveloped countries are less able to send delegates to meetings and often cannot understand what is being discussed at the talks. –JCL

The Guardian:

The UN climate negotiations are weighted heavily against the poorest countries, who cannot send delegates to key meetings, often do not understand what is being said and are unable keep up with the decisions being taken in their name, a report by an NGO that promotes fairness in the negotiations has found.

While rich countries have sent more than 150 delegates each to Cancún, more than half of the countries in the world have fewer than five representatives, with 26 countries having only one or two. For every 100m people living in Africa there are three negotiators — the equivalent figure for the EU is 6.4.

According to the report, based on research by campaign group UNfairplay, countries must be at as many as six meetings at the same time to follow the talks which are “cryptic”, “untransparent” and “opaque”.

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