Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator of the G77 bloc of countries, representing some 130 nations, accused Mr Zenawi of capitulating to rich country pressure and savaged the European Union, who he blamed for the move.
“Meles [Zenawi] agrees with the EU perspective and the EU perspective accepts the destruction of a whole continent plus dozens of other states,” he told EUobserver. “The EU’s very moral foundation is deeply questionable because she accepts that a large section of the human family should suffer in order for her to continue to thrive and prosper.”
He predicted other African nations will reject the proposal. “The African Union has not accepted this. Meles is not the author of this proposal, the EU definitely is, along with the UK and France.”
Some development NGOs and environmental groups guardedly welcomed the proposal, with Greenpeace saying that the new alliance between the European Union and the African Union could successfully pressure the US to come to the table with a more ambitious offer.
Adding to the thaw over climate finance, on Wednesday, Japan boosted its global warming aid to 1,750 yen ($15 billion) a year, of which $11 billion would come from government revenues.
Background of Ambassador Lumumba, the chief negotiator for the G77
Lumumba Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping is a Sudanese diplomat, who is the chief negotiator for the G77 group of developing nations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, in Copenhagen. The Republic of Sudan currently chairs the Group of 77.
At a meeting of African delegates to the conference, he reportedly stated that: “We have been asked to sign a suicide pact…What is Obama going to tell his daughters? That their [Kenyan] relatives’ lives are not worth anything? It is unfortunate that after 500 years-plus of interaction with the West we [Africans] are still considered ‘disposables’…My good friends..we’ve got to get together and fight the fight.”
He suggested a couple of slogans: “One Africa, one degree” and “Two degrees is suicide”, following which a demonstration was organised in the conference centre using the slogans and attracting a reported storm of media interest.On 10 December 2009, he made a direct appeal to the USA to join the Kyoto Protocol and to contribute $200 billion “to save the world”.
On 14 December, Di-Aping led the G77-China group in withdrawing cooperation from the negotiations. He stated: “It has become clear that the Danish presidency – in the most undemocratic fashion – is advancing the interests of the developed countries at the expense of the balance of obligations between developed and developing countries…The mistake they are doing now has reached levels that cannot be acceptable from a president who is supposed to be acting and shepherding the process on behalf of all parties.”
