By Dan Satherley
Environmentalists are hopeful a financial package for poor nations struggling with climate change will come from this year's UN talks, currently underway in Cancun, Mexico.
Oxfam NZ executive director Barry Coates is in Cancun, and told 3 News progress is being made.
"A final agreement's not going to happen in Cancun, but hopefully the finance part will," he says.
"One of the most important achievements would be a fair climate fund. This would help to rebuild trust and put the talks back on track."
Oxfam wants rich countries to help poorer nations deal with climate change, since rich countries are the cause of most climate-related issues, yet the effects are felt most strongly in poorer nations.
"Our Pacific neighbours are struggling with the impacts of climate change," he says.
"This is not aid. This is about vulnerable communities protecting themselves from a problem that they did not cause."
The lack of any deal at last year's talks in Copenhagen took the media spotlight off this year's meet. Mr Coates called the lack of any deal a "spectacular failure".
"There was a big build up to Copenhagen," he says.
"It was the world's biggest climate change conference, the world's biggest ever environmental conference. There was quite a dashing of expectations.
"There was a consensus of expectations being let down, so things have gone a little bit quiet."
The reverse is true for the world's climate itself. According to a new Oxfam report - Now More Than Ever: Climate Talks That Work For Those Who Need Them Most – at least 21,000 people died in weather-related disasters in the first nine months of 2010 – more than double for the whole of 2009.
"Globally, the number of storms and extreme weather events are on the rise," says Mr Coates.
Though an overall agreement to tackle climate change is highly unlikely to come from Cancun, Mr Coates says there are "building blocks" for a final deal he hopes will come together at next year's talks in Durban, South Africa.
But apart from reducing emissions and helping poorer nations, Mr Coates says New Zealand should take advantage of opportunities presented by the growing awareness of climate change.
"The one thing that's really changed over the past year is that many countries have stopped seeing climate change as a cost," says Mr Coates.
"They are seeing that there are business opportunities in climate change, and the countries that move fast will do well."
He says if New Zealand wants to have any other future than being a commodity producer, we had better join become one of those countries.
3 News
source: newshub archive
