Reuters/Barcelona

African nations yesterday boycotted some UN climate talks by demanding far deeper 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by rich nations in a global pact to be agreed next month.

“People in Africa are suffering now, people are dying now, when the developed countries are not willing to express...ambitious reductions,” Kemal Djemouai, chair of the African group, said of the protest in Barcelona.

The African nations said they would return to talks only if the rich were willing to discuss far deeper cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases as the heart of a new UN deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen at talks from December 7-18.

This week’s negotiations in Barcelona are the last formal talks before Copenhagen and meant to enter an intense phase.

The protest cancelled all meetings yesterday about an extension of the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto binds all industrialised nations except the US to cut emissions by 2012.

Talks on another track in Barcelona continued as normal - on commitments by all nations including the US and developing states to fight global warming.

“It will be very difficult to continue work in Copenhagen if we don’t have concrete evidence” that rich nations would do more, Djemouai said.

African nations say developed states should cut emissions by at least 40% below 1990 by 2020 - cuts on offer so far range from 11 to 15%.

By staying away from talks, Africa would stall the design of a market where it could sell cheap emissions cuts to the North, said Pa Ousman Jarju, of Gambia.

“We’re not prepared to give them a blank cheque.”

John Ashe, chair of the Kyoto talks, told Reuters the situation could be “extremely serious” since lost days in Barcelona meant even less time in Copenhagen to break deadlock on issues such as emissions and funding the climate fight.

African nations said climate change, caused mainly by developed nations since the Industrial Revolution hit the poor hardest. Global warming is set to trigger floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels, according to the UN panel of climate experts.

“We are asking (for more cuts) because we are under pressure from the impacts of climate change,” said Grace Akumu of Kenya. She said drought in Kenya was killing people and livestock as well as wildlife on which the big tourism sector depended.

Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, said there were other issues apart from cuts that can be discussed in Barcelona about Kyoto, such as the role of carbon absorbing forests or land clearance.

And blocking talks was self-defeating for African nations. “To start now blocking the negotiations will certainly not get us to a result,” he said.

All developing countries reiterated charges that rich nations were trying to “kill Kyoto” by merging it into a single pact in Copenhagen.

They want rich nations’ pledges under Kyoto kept separate from their own actions.

“It is becoming official that they do want to walk away and discard the Kyoto Protocol...We find that fundamentally objectionable,” said Lumumba Sanislaus Di-Aping, of Sudan who chairs the Group of 77 and China.

He said that all developing nations were “supportive” the African position.

Spanish Environment Minister Elena Espinosa confirmed the European Union favoured merging talks on Kyoto with a broader deal, rather than extend the Protocol. “We have a preference for a single legally binding agreement,” she said.