Latin American socialists boycott last hours of COP15

Speaking at a press conference following the boycott, the Venezuelan President said the ALBA (Latin American Socialist Alliance) states would not be signing a document handed down from wealthy states at the last minute.

He and his peers said that while everyone else was happy to ignore the elephant in the room, they were prepared to point the finger, saying that capitalism caused climate change and it was the responsibility of those states that had benefitted most from industrialisation to put things right.

They blamed the developed world for ‘turning Mother Nature into a commodity’ and claimed that it was unfair to call for transparency when looking at how the developing countries managed climate funds, while expecting to be able to be self-governing when it came to making carbon cuts.

“They want to measure us and themselves,” said the Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Chavez scorned the ‘ridiculous’ annual sum of $100bn suggested for a climate fund and said the USA was trying to buy off developing countries.

“They think we’re stupid,” he said.

“Offering money like that was the problem. They just don’t want the model to change, they don’t want a challenge to that economic domination.”

Sam Bond