The development agency said that one important signal would be to start “in earnest” the transfer of technologies from rich countries to poor to help them fight the effects of climate change.
The transfers, which should also include financial assistance, should be carried out in a “measurable, verifiable and reportable” fashion to engender trust, says the international development agency. It is concerned that otherwise, negotiations will quickly become deadlocked.
Following the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bali in December, the UN released position papers from many of the countries that took part.
They revealed a number of points of conflict, most prominent of which were the demands from the industrialised world that developing nations commit themselves to cutting carbon, that were countered by emerging economies saying the lead has to be taken by richer countries.
The UNFCCC meets again in Bangkok tomorrow to set the agenda for talks over the next two years towards a new climate change agreement starting in 2012 when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires.
Christian Aid climate change policy specialist Andrew Pendleton said: "Recent scientific observations and new work by highly respected institutes such as NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center point to global warming happening faster and with more extreme consequences than even last year's UN climate science report suggested.
“We are deeply concerned about the plight of the world's poorest communities, where people are highly vulnerable to climatic changes, and already suffering its consequences.
“It is time for the richer countries to commit themselves to taking unilateral action. Climate change is a global emergency and the world simply does not have time for deadlocked negotiations.”
