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Bolivia criticise climate draft

Bolivia have criticised a draft UN agreement on climate change as too weak and accused other nations of trying to isolate the leftist-led nation at a crunch conference in Mexico.

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Source: AFP


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Bolivia late Friday criticized a draft UN agreement on climate change as too weak and accused other nations of trying to isolate the leftist-led nation at a crunch conference in Mexico.

"This document doesn't take into account Bolivia's proposals," climate negotiator Pablo Solon told a first meeting to discuss the text.

"Bolivia isn't ready to sign up to a document which means a rise in temperature which will put more humans in a near-death situation," Solon added, charging it could allow a rise of more than four degrees Celsius.

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Since decisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change need to be made by consensus, Bolivia's stance raised the prospect of a second straight lengthy night.

But Venezuela, an ally of Bolivia that led opposition at last year's summit in Copenhagen, hinted it would not campaign against the draft.

Solon earlier told journalists that the draft proposal did not take into account decisions of indigenous and peasant movements that have met in the Andean nation.

"We have observed a dirty war to try to isolate and corner Bolivia," he added.

"We believe that the United States has had a great influence as this text is basically the Copenhagen agreement which the United States promoted," Solon said, referring to last year's chaotic summit in the Danish capital.

Host Mexico released a proposal after 24 hours of virtually non-stop negotiations that would call on all nations to make "deep cuts" in carbon emissions aiming to cap rising temperatures at 2.0 degrees Celsius.

The Cancun accord, meant as a building block to a future treaty, also spells out ways to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in aid which the wealthy economies including the United States, European Union and Japan have pledged in climate assistance for worst-affected poor nations.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has emerged as a top critic of the talks, saying in Cancun that climate change was tantamount to "genocide" and proposing that wealthy nations give to the poor as much as they spend on their militaries.


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