Costa Rica calls for climate change support from world’s top polluters

The president of Costa Rica called on developed economies to put their money where their mouth is on climate change during an address to the United Nations in Geneva, on Monday.

President Luis Guillermo Solís said that polluters have been freeloading on the efforts of developing countries like Costa Rica to preserve forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Solís called on the world’s wealthiest nations to provide more economic support to middle- and lower-income countries working to curb the impact of climate change.

The Costa Rican president’s comments came as the Group of Seven nations were meeting in Bonn, Germany, to discuss climate change commitments.

“We developing countries cannot continue subsidizing emissions from the countries who pollute the most. The time to talk is over, it’s time to take responsibility and take collective and solidarity action,” Solís said.

The president said that assistance should focus on improving access to new technology for developing nations and access to favorable financing.

Solís also called on the biggest polluters to accept emission quotas in the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris. He said that any commitments should be uniform, measurable and transparent, available to the public for review.

Due to end on Friday, the 11-day Bonn talks are tasked with shaping a draft text for the U.N. conference in Paris, held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, which must yield a global agreement. But after a week of wrangling, just about 5 percent had been shaved off a sprawling near-90-page draft, mostly by removing glaring duplications, said delegates.

The final document is supposed to enshrine the will of 195 countries to roll back climate change, spell out commitments to tackle greenhouse gases and provide aid to vulnerable economies from 2020.

Costa Rica has made a commitment to be the world’s first CO2-neutral country by its bicentennial in 2021.

AFP contributed to this report.