Cold facts of a warming world

The Doha climate change conference - the 18th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - is barely halfway through, but it has become abundantly clear already that a resolution on any key issue is unlikely to transpire. It is equally clear that the confabulations on climate change have become a reenactment of history - annually as farce.

The line of divide between the developed world and the global South has become more entrenched than ever and every year the trenches keep getting dug deeper. That is especially so because Europe - which started out with moderate and environmentally sensible positions - is now following the lead of the climate hardliners in the developed world, especially the United States, Canada and Australia. In such a situation, compromise is nearly impossible and, most unfortunately, all negotiations are as spurious as they are meaningless.

Let us then look at what the global South under the leadership of China, India, Brazil and South Africa must do on some of the key issues. First, of course, is the small matter of the Kyoto Protocol itself. Southern negotiators have so far been steadfast on one point, with some unfortunate lapses, and must remain so. It is up to the developing world - led or not by the BASIC group - to reiterate this principle.