Sudan, December 19: A Negotiator from Sudan has likened industrial powers’ plans to fight climate change to the Holocaust as passions flared over a deal in Copenhagen.
Sudanese official Lumumba Stanislas Dia-ping, who chairs the Group of 77 and China bloc of 130 poor nations, angrily denounced a US-led draft agreement on climate change during an all-night session.
The pact “is a solution based on values, the very same values in our opinion that funnelled six million people in Europe into furnaces,” Dia-ping said.
Dia-ping is known for strong statements and declared the draft deal the worst in the history of climate negotiations.
The draft “asked Africa to sign a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries,” he said.
Delegates from a number of Western countries quickly took to the floor to denounce the Sudanese delegate’s references as offensive.
Ed Miliband, Britain’s climate minister, condemned the “disgusting comparison” which he said “should offend people across this conference whatever background they come from”.
Dia-ping had accused Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen of bias against developing nations.
The agreement seeks to limit climate change to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Rich countries also pledged to commit $US30 billion ($33.83 billion) between 2010 and 2012 for poorer nations to cope with climate change with a goal of $US100 billion ($112.78 billion) by 2020.
—Agencies