The Chairman of the G-77 Lumumba Stanislaus DI-Aping has severely criticised Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen following the leak of Denmark’s proposal for a final document for the COP15 Climate Summit conference.

“Your prime minister has chosen to protect the rich countries. It’s not on,” Di-Aping tells politiken.dk.

The draft suggests that developing countries should accept binding agreements on reducing CO2, something they are not required to do under the current Kyoto agreement. The draft also suggests that the World Bank, rather than the United Nations should control the flow of funding from rich to poor countries.

DOCUMENTATION See the leaked document here

Di-Aping, a Somali by birth, is reported to have told an urgently-called, closed meeting of 100 countries that the draft was tantamount to asking the G-77 to ‘sign a suicide pact,’ adding that the Danish draft was ‘worse than no deal’ and urging attending countries to firmly reject the proposals.

To politiken.dk Di-Aping says that it is a major problem that there is a parallel process being run beside the United Nations process and that the Danish government with its draft has damaged Denmark’s reputation in Africa.

“You have to listen to all of the countries of the world. That is what democracy is about and a process that you also pay tribute to here in Denmark,” Di-Aping says.

“If Copenhagen ends as a fiasco, the entire Scandinavian multi-lateral tradition will be in jeopardy. What your prime minister is doing runs contrary to the spirit of development aid that Denmark and the Danes have provided for Africa for many years,” Di-Aping says.