Top US Negotiator: Climate Reparations? Certainly not from us

Todd Stern, the Obama Administration's chief negotiator stated the president's position on suggested "climate reparations" to the Chinese delegation: "I don't envision public funds, certainly not from the U.S., going to China."

This announcement comes just a day after the furor over the "Danish text," an alternative treaty that would place strict emissions cuts on developing nations and would be administered by the World Bank. Developing nations and the NGOs that support them say that the Danish text seeks to split developing countries over political interests and move climate discussion into forums where they have less influence. Standing on tables and chanting "two degrees," the furious uproar from developing nations caused the event organizer to temporarily suspend the negotiations so that delegations could soften their positions. Stern's statements today show that little has changed of America's opinion toward closing the gap with developing nations. The European Union, a supporter of the original treaty, is beginning to side with the US and has accused China of lobbying with the developing world to unify against adopting emissions targets.

Wednesday, China insisted that western nations should provide money and technology because of their past emission of greenhouse gasses. In a hasty response to the Danish text, which has allegedly been secretly developed for months, the Chinese are putting together a draft of their own that borrows heavily from the Kyoto Protocol. A Wall Street Journal reporter suggested that China is fully aware that such an agreement would be "legally and politically impossible" in America and is using it to widen the political gap between the US and developing nations.

Stern said that under the Danish text, a joint fund of $10 billion contributed from five of the largest industrial nations would be established every year from 2012 to 2015. Stern was quick to point out that the World Bank-administered fund would only be distributed to the poorest of nations — where it is most needed and most efficient. All other needs would be financed through the World Bank, a move that NGOs like Friends of the Earth say will only crush developing nations with debt and further their political and economic distance from the major economies.