Christian Aid wants wealthy nations to foot lion's share of climate change bill

Christian Aid has said it will push for a follow-on agreement to the Kyoto Protocol that will include "the provision of massive support" for developing nations from the industrialised world when the UN Climate Change Conference convenes in Bali next week.

The international development agency is sending a small team to lobby at the December 3 - 14 conference, which includes Political Relations Advisor Nelson Muffah and Campaigns Manager Sarah Spinney.

Joining the team will be Mohamed Adow, a representative of Christian Aid's Muslim partner agency in Kenya, Northern Aid, which works to help re-build the lives of thousands of pastoralists who have seen their way of life disappear as a result of drought.

Northern Aid also works to build reconciliation between communities that have fallen victim to conflict and divisions over scarce resources like water or land for grazing.

Through his work with the agency, Adow has experienced first hand the impact that climate change is already having on the world's poorer communities.

Christian Aid said it hoped that the Bali conference would lead to the agreement of an internationally agreed long-term goal to reduce emissions.

It added that any emissions reduction plan should include "rapid and deep" cuts in carbon emissions in wealthy countries, and financial support for developing countries "to enable them to make cuts without suffering economically".

Christian Aid is to co-host a panel discussion in Bali on greenhouse development rights, an economic model that sets out one possible way to portion up the bill for the developed world country by country, according to each country's historic responsibility for carbon emissions, and taking into consideration their capacity to pay.

Panel members will include Martin Kohr, director of Third World Network and adviser to G77; Philip Gwage, lead negotiator, Uganda; Paul Baer, of US climate change think tank EcoEquity; Sivan Kartha, Stockholm Environment Institute; Mohamed Adow, Northern Aid, Kenya. It will be chaired by Barbara Unmuessig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.