JAMAICA is insisting that developed countries reduce by 45 per cent their greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions that are fuelling climate change, which threatens to sink entire islands and devastate coastal livelihoods.

The island’s position, which mirrors that of the Alliance of Small Island States [AOSIS] of which it is a member, wants the reductions realised by 2020 and below 1990 levels.

“I am hoping that we will have significant emissions reduction of the order of those called for by AOSIS and supported by Jamaica. I am speaking (too) of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 350 parts per million peaking by 2015 and reducing increasing temperatures by not more than 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said meteorologist Jeffrey Spooner who is here as part of Jamaica’s climate negotiating team.

“These are figures that, to be honest with you, I don’t think we can negotiate on. These are figures which if not met will have dire consequences for countries like Jamaica. We are talking about our existence here. We are not a nation that commits suicide, and to ask us to compromise on these is tantamount to committing suicide,” he added.

In addition to the emission reductions, Spooner told the Observer that it is also critical that developed countries arrive at an agreement that would enhance the developing world’s ability to adapt to climate change through new and predictable financing, and technology transfer.

Without that sort of assistance, he noted that Jamaica and other vulnerable societies in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, face hard times ahead.

“It will mean that some of our small island states are going under the sea. If people have to be relocated, they will lose their culture and [thus] their identity. So based on this, we [as AOSIS] can never ask for less [than the assistance we are asking for],” said Spooner, who is also head of the Climate Branch of Jamaica’s Met Office.

Negotiators from across the world are locked in discussions this week and next week to arrive at an agreement on climate change, which ideally should accrue to the benefit of all 192 states that are members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] and the 189 who are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol.

But whether they will arrive at an agreement is unclear. Developing countries want deep emission cuts from developed countries, some of which are constrained by internal legislation or the absence thereof within their borders. At the same time, developed countries want rapidly developing economies such as Brazil, China and India to themselves commit to binding emission reduction targets. Developing countries, meanwhile, want technology transferred from developed societies, such as the United States, to aid their adaptation efforts. However, developed countries have concerns over the intellectual property rights for their private sector for such technologies.

Still, Spooner, also the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean’s representative on the Adaptation Fund Board, is hopeful for a positive outcome from the talks.

“Especially speaking from the point of view of one of the countries that is significantly impacted by climate change and least able to adapt, I am hopeful that there should be a meaningful outcome of this conference,” he said.

Spooner added that whatever the obstacles to the process, they could be overcome. Developed countries, he noted, just need to play their part.

“Somehow we should be able to arrive at an agreement that should enable us to move ahead,” Spooner said. “If we stick to the convention (the UNFCCC), which speak of the common but differentiated responsibility, the responsibility is on the developed countries to show leadership. They have not showed leadership.”