Developing nations have won historic recognition of the plight they face from the ravages of climate change, wringing a pledge from rich nations that they will receive funds to repair the “loss and damage” incurred. This is the first time developing countries have received such assurances, and the first time the phrase “loss and damage from climate change” has been enshrined in an international legal document.
But the UN climate change conference in Doha failed to address greenhouse gas emissions with the Kyoto Protocol – which the US have never ratified and which classifies China, soon the be the world’s biggest economy, as a developing nation, being left in place until 2020. The EU, Norway,Australia and a handful of other developed nations have agreed to take on new carbon cutting targets under the treaty, but the world’s two biggest economies, the USA and China, will be outside of this. Ronald Jumeau, negotiating for the Seychelles, told the US negotiator: “If we had had more ambition