Africans condemn Russian ‘shenanigans’ at UN climate talks

African civil society groups have condemned “Russia’s shenanigans” for blocking moves to discuss loss and damage from the impacts of global warming and the adequacy of the 2 degree Celsius target for limiting its increase.

Seven days of stonewalling by the Russian Federation — backed by Belarus and Ukraine — led to one of the key strands of the current round of UN climate talks in Bonn being abandoned because agreement could not be reached on its agenda.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres told The Irish Times she was "frustrated" by the collapse of efforts by members of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) to agree on an agenda, but said this was "all part of the process" of UN negotiations.

Oleg Shamanov, the lead Russian negotiator, countered that the process itself was "sick" and parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were "forced to resolve problems in circumstances of haste, apprehension and anxiety".

Calling it a “haunted house”, Mr Shamanov complained that Russia’s objections to the deal reached in Doha last December had been ignored.

“This is a systemic issue. Unless we put our house back in order, we may not be able to guarantee that in 2015 we end up with something productive,” he said, referring to the commitment to conclude a global agreement on tackling climate change within 18 months.

Valiant efforts by SBI chairman Tomasz Chruszczow, of Poland — supported by the EU, the US and other parties — to find a formula that would satisfy Mr Shamanov and his allies came to nothing, and will be resumed at the Warsaw summit in November.

Mithika Mwenda, co-ordinator of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, said: “Russia’s shenanigans have set back critical work on loss and damage and so now Poland, as host of the next summit, must find a way to ensure this issue is dealt with fully.”

He called on all 194 countries that are parties to the UNFCCC to "look up from their legal and procedural tricks and focus on the planetary emergency that is hitting Africa first and hardest" — with farmers having to cope with changing weather patterns.