City life without green, too boring

BY WORKU BELACAHEW

BY WORKU BELACAHEW

Tadele Hordoffa,75, is a resident in Addis. He used to engage in his own private business before retiring some seven years from now due to health reasons. To him it is too difficult to stay the whole day at home. His daily routine begins in visiting the nearby chapel for a morning prayer. Then the prolonged traditional coffee ceremony at his home together with other minor activities he absorbs himself in help him spend most of his time. But, he could not endure staying at home between the time 4 and 7, in the afternoon. This is also a tantalizing time to be outside of home.

“For a person of my own age walking or sitting by the road sides have both recreational and health values,” he says. “However, starting from my residence around Saris till Meskel square you could not get any rest-stop by the road sides, I expected that the construction of the exchange road around Gottera might bring comfortable green space with certain recreational facilities. In deed, it has open space in the middle, but, still goes without any infrastructures, I dare say the capital is not suitable for persons like me, ” he adds.

Bezawit Alemu, 7, lives with her parents around Megenagna. She long awaited the conclusion of this school year. It is not because she hate going to school, but her parents promised to buy a bicycle to her only if she scores good marks and promoted from Upper kindergarten to grade one. The tot has luckily performed best from her class and got the promised award from her parents. No one, however, predicted that they have no safe place in their compound to ride the bicycle, sadly nor it is available in their neighborhoods as all the previous open spaces which served as a play field have been occupied.

The 125 years diplomatic hub of Africa and capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, is witnessing construction boom. The capital's previous defining characters like shanty and slum neighborhoods now see a light of redevelopment. To day lots of these places turn to high rise condominium houses. Roads of various kinds are constructed or are under construction. Yet, the city's development is not a full-fledged one-as many agree. It is not hyperbolic saying Addis is experiencing a symptom of increasing concrete jungle. Most places which were reserved for public space are engulfed by illegal constructions. Similarly, many of the spaces which are delineated for green areas are not developed while some of the parks with good facilities are unable to give services. The trend is completely, in at most, against the capital's master plan that envisaged to creationg safe and livable city.

Abebaw Sentie is director of Urban Planing and Information Institute at the Addis Ababa City Administration explains; Environmental Protection is among the grand components of the city's already concluded ten years master plan. This is a generic term which include main social and municipal services include festival, trade fair, sport and recreation, green areas near rivers, parks, cemetery, fire brigade and so on. Such places are located on the master plan. To mention, but few of them, festival sites like Jan meda, the largest available open space in the north-east; a place around Hana Mariam (West of Addis) and there is also a place reserved for same purpose around CMC (east of Addis) To put it in figures 40% (around 22000 hectares) of the total landmass was reserved to serve these purposes, Abebaw added. This time the revision of the capital's master plan is on its way. Surely, it helps us get the prevailing conditions of these places as we will collect data pertinent to that. But, our general evaluation have it that most of the open spaces are either grabbed for illegal constructions or do not get the appropriate attention by the concerned authorities.

Abebaw also unveils that due to the traditional settlement in Addis some of the places near the river sides are already populated. According to him, it needs a huge budget to relocate the settlers. Being this the fact, not a few of the river sides are consumed by illegal housing constructions.

In his Master's thesis titled Open space provision in residential areas: critical evaluation of selected cases in Addis Ababa (July 2005) Architect Yeneneh Chanyalew identified certain issues which had to be addressed regarding residential open spaces in the capital. To mention, but few; the various city plans of the capital overlooked the importance of open space particularly in residential areas which could have been considered as an integral part of the open space system of the city. As a result, the spaces were disconnected or given loose function. Thus, he suggested the consideration of comprehensive city plan that reinstate the already available open spaces. According to him the provision of open space would be best when it is matched with the spacial need of inhabitants and the role of the open space. More importantly, he argued that a detailed urban and landscape design guideline has an escalated importance in determining the location of open spaces,the management of facilities in it like; seats,street lights, telephone booths,fountains and so on. The availability and proper management of these facilities would increase the number of people enjoy and stay in these places,he wrote.

Yeneneh said the capital has proved development than it was seven years from now when he conducted his master's thesis. Yet, the absence of the aforesaid guideline is felt as there is hardly successful open space in the city. Still, there are opportunities to provide Addis with successful open spaces, according to him. For one thing, we can model best practices from other successful cities. Not only that, there are also many bad experiences of other cities. Thus, it is possible to draw the best out of these. He also perceives the ongoing rapid urban redevelopment works in Addis Ababa as good opportunities to allocate new open spaces.

As the writer of this piece has observed the roadside parks in various places across the city there are irregularities in ownership and handling of the parks, in most cases. The relatively green belt (parks) which are enriched by the famous business tycoon Sheikh Al-Amoudi Africa Park and Millennium Park, for instance are still closed for public use, only one of them Addis Ababa park is made open for public. Due to that the facilities in the other two parks are damaging. Anonymous body posted 'no entrance' on the street park around Sidest Kilo, near ministry of Finance and Economic Development. Many play grounds in most neighborhoods are engulfed by constructions. Leave aside that pedestrians are getting hard time hustling with vehicles as high rise buildings compete the side walks for parking lot.

Various researches supports the notion that urban open spaces offer health benefits through giving residents mental relief from the stress of concrete jungle life. People can be a passive participants of green space through watching birds and listening to their songs, getting fresh breeze, time spent sitting or reading. Besides, when open spaces are attractive and accessible, people are more likely to be active participants on the places like engaging in physical activities which directly improve their health.

Yeneneh on his part has indicated that, there are general indicators as small kids and youngsters are full of energy. Thus, the availability of well managed play fields are means to release this energy. Besides, it is children's behavior to play. Open spaces also comforts senior citizens, pensioners, people with disabilities and so on. City is not only a mere combination of the roads and buildings green value is also part and parcel of a standard city, he concludes.

 A 24 hours noise, shaking Addis

“Like a dog that guards the owner’s house, our ears guard us from any possible danger as they continuously hear sound. They function 24 hours a day like that of heart and lung,” says Dr. Abebe, Assistant Prof. at Addis Ababa University, College of medical sciences,in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-a science that deals with the throat, nose and ear.
Almost all specialists in the area agree with the fact that our ears need to be exposed to a certain Decibel of sound (db)-a unit to measure the pitch of sound. Even this limited level of sound depends on the emotional status we are in at that specific moment, as to literature. The rhythmic music that creates a recreational feeling to our mind might be referred us to noise, when we are sleeping or need to concentrate.
An agreeable definition by Ato Abera Brhanu, Pollution Research Officer at Addis Ababa Environment Protection Authority (AEPA) might be ‘unwanted and disturbing sound’  there are four important markers of unwanted sound as to Abera which are emotional status of the listener, the time (day or night) the place (residential , commercial…) and the loudness of the sound.
Abera does not agree with people who say noise pollution is not a threat to Addis Ababa, of course these people consider noise pollution as a luxury. The research findings of AEPA in which Abera took part in has shown the prevalence of noise pollution and its consequences. 
There are factors that necessitate the research, that was the physical observations of the officers of AEPA. Then 20 Kebeles of different sub-cities of Addis were taken as  sample,  from which a recorded group and individual complaints of noise pollution had been collected.
Another input also had been taken from a focused group discussion inspired by different media and the authority itself. And all have revealed the prevalence of the problem.

The devise that measures sound level to check the existence of noise pollution, called 'Integrating sound level Meter' has been introduced to Addis lately.  And a considerable amount of study was carried out using the devise, taking  21 main roads in the part central  Addis  as a sample (the study considered Lideta, Addis Ketema yeka sub-cities  as central)   The measurement was taken three meters away from the roads, where many residents are found and the result has  verified the existence of noise pollution in the areas.
 “so”   said Abera “we are saying there is noise pollution in Addis  based on these evidences” he added.
As to the standards of AEPA which is drawn from the regulations of the Federal Environment Protection Authority, there are standards of noise for day & evening and night time, where day & evening is the range of time between 12:00 am and 3:00pm, the rest that is the time between 3;00 pm and 12:00 am is night.
The standard puts the maximum db for  residential, commercial and industrial areas. “it is really difficult to make distinction among the three, since most  residents,commercial areas... are settled together ” said Abera “any way in residential area the maximum limit  for the day & evening  55db while 45db is the maximum at night. The figures are  different  for commercial areas, as it is 65db for  day & evening  and  55 db at night. The highest limit for  In industrial area at day & evening is 75db while 70db is at night.

The researches of the authority have uncovered the existence of many pollutants in the capital. Religious institutions, dogs barking and vehicular noise are said the highest pollutant both at day& evening and night. Advertisement and music shops on the other hand take the first lead as a day pollutant. Nothing paralleled Discos and Digital Satellite Television’s (Ds Tv) soccer shows as night pollutants.
The pollution also differs from place to place, for instance,the dominant pollutant  around  Nifas Silk Lafto Sub-city is said aircraft. When we see Bole sub-city it is discos that are great pollutant.
Another study conducted  by forum for environment, a foreign charity that operate in Ethiopia, has shown that the frequency of individual  compliant of noise pollution is rising from year to year. Yeka sub-city for example registered no compliant in 1996; however, in 2002  it registered 141 complaints.   The total number of  complaints of noise pollution at the peripheries of Addis  (the study considers them as peripheries) Bole, Nifas Silk- Lafto ,Kirkos and Akiki kaliti sub-cities which Was nil in 1996 rises to 303 in 2002.
In an exclusive interview with Akirma (A house Magazine of Forum for Environment ) Ato Abera argued 'even the rhythmic music would be a position  when it crosses the normal decibel.'
Dr. Abebe Melaku (Md. PhD) seriously discusses the two damages on the ears that are caused by noise, these are  an injury on the conductive system and Inner ear or Perception. However he attributed these to high pitch noise like that of explosive and gun-shot.
Talking about a lesser degree of noise , Abebe said , when the level reaches 90 db and above, it may create temporary shift-of-threshold-a state in which one feel deafness for a while. If the exposure continues for some time it turns to be a permanent shift-of-threshold- a state in which a person can no more listen to the normal, 40 db sound, As to the specialist.
“Noise damage is not a settled one that you can incur and see rather it is a hidden one that do not attract immediate attention ” says Dr. Abebe. Noise pollution is not only a cause of hearing damages it also initiate or aggravate other sophistication like cardiovascular diseases- a heart problem,hypertension-a raised blood pressure stress, depression, sleeping disturbance and Vasoconstriction- narrowing of blood vessels. It also creates a mass psychotruma on the society like annoyance, anger and depression. Noise  affects not only adults it also affects fetus, therefore expectant mothers need not to expose to a high db of noise and backs this with example “the fetus moves in reaction to music, that is excitement but if it is a noise  ,obviously, affects its development ” says Dr. Abebe

 The government has a constitutional responsibility to make citizens live in a safe environment as to the article 92(1) of the FDRE's constitution and its efforts through the Federal and Regional Environment Protection Authorities is encouraging, but not enough, in my opinion. It seems that the public understanding about the danger of noise is very less. “I do not know  the existence of any law to alleviate such problem I rather avoid living in such places “ says Solomon Getahun, who was obliged to change his residential area because of the annoying noise from the neighboring Discotheque.” I payed the house rent in advance but the noise made me up almost all night long for about a week. The lady who rented me the house said she could not do any thing, other than adapting to the noise.” he added.
Even institutions that are expected to build the public moral like religious ones disturbs the peace of residents. Not only that, as to Kalleab Belachew, a young man who is doing his Masters degree at Addis Ababa University on Tourism  “Universities, Hospitals , schools and hotels are also victims. look Addis is the heart of Africa, it hosts many giant conferences that could possibly generate income for the nation but if this Noise cannot get some kind of solution how can the conference tourists enjoy this city?'' questions Kalleab.
The existence of the authorities and the  standard of noise pollution by itself could not be enough a promulgated law that is governing to all might be an essential instrument to alleviate the problem..
“It is a high time in which environmentalists look in to a real consideration of the noise pollution, since the country is in rapid growth” said Abbe when he winds up the discussion with Ethiopian Hearld.




 

PM Hailemariam calls for African common position in Doha Climate Change Conference 

(News by ERTA)

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn has called for African common position in the upcoming Doha Climate Change Conference as has been negotiated on the issues over the past years.

The Premier made the call at the 2nd annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa on Friday under the theme: ‘Advancing Knowledge, Policy and Practice in Climate Change and Development’ at UNECA Convention Center in Addis Ababa.

Hailemariam said Ethiopia is ready to share its green economy development experience to sister African countries.

The Premier said Africa should advance its concerns on climate change with one voice in the upcoming Doha, Climate Change Conference. He said the Continent should seize the Conference to advance the cause of Africa at international forums as the late PM Meles Zenawi had done so.

The fund for African green economy development is not closed and should get its compensation for the devastated effect of climate change it faces, he said.

He noted that Africa should negotiate on climate change based on substantiated scientific researches.

PM Hailemariam said the African Climate Change Policy Center established by the Economic Commission for Africa should capacitate negotiators, countries and institutions in policy and analytical researches.

The premier said Ethiopia would extend all the necessary support in campaigning for Africa in the Conference. Ethiopia is willing to share its Climate-Resilient Green Economy and results kindled by the late PM Meles for sister African countries, he said, adding, all rounded effort is underway to attain the carbon free economy by the year 2025.

As part of the effort, the Ethiopian government is running huge projects on renewable energy resources including water, wind and geothermal, he said.

The premier said African nations should similarly be politically committed and solicit social mobilization for the same cause.

UN-ECA Executive Secretary Carlos Lopes for his part said Africa is being affected in various ways including increasing of temperature, more frequent and sever incidents of drought and floods, retreat in glaciers and rising sea level.

He said sectors like health, energy, water and sanitation would be impacted by climate change and require appropriate policy responses.

He said the theme of the conference is appropriate as knowledge which is informed by practice is vital to design policies that will promote development in the face of climate change.

He said member states and regional institutions need to scale up investment in climate change data information and service, chart out clear policy and development that are climate resilient and low carbon intensive.

The executive secretary said Africa position in the climate change negotiations continues to be well prepared so as to obtain access to more finance, appropriate technology and capacity development needs.

The two-day conference would deliberate on research papers and is expected to adopt African common position on climate change in the upcoming Doha Conference.

Late Prime Minister Meles legacy in building  Climate Resilient Green Economy in Ethiopia, Africa

 BY WORKU BELACEW
   
    The premier was Africa's notable spokesperson. His representations among other African peers on G-8 and G-20 summits has brought a concrete and successful achievement, thereby developed countries start to give attention to the long forgotten larger Continent, Africa, and its people. Thanks to his legacy and wonderful arguments, today Africa is building its capacity to mitigate the effects of global climate change through sustaining climate resilient green economy. He also put Ethiopia at the forefront of this effort to set exemplary deeds for the rest of countries of the continent.
    “As we discuss Africa's specific expectations from the climate change negotiations, we need to highlight what is often taken for granted and is thus often missed. Our interest is not to claim compensation for climate change and its damages. Our interest is to prevent that from happening in the first instance. That is our primary interest precisely because Africa's eco-systems are amongst the most fragile in the world and hence highly vulnerable to catastrophic changes due to small changes in temperature. It makes no sense to us for someone to make large parts of our continent unlivable and then pay some compensation for doing so. We understand that a certain degree of global warming is already happening and increase in global temperatures of about 20c are practically unavoidable. We will have to live with that because we do not seem to have any other option. We will live with the damage caused by the unavoidable levels of global warming and seek compensation and assistance to limit the damage. What we are not prepared to live with is global warming above the minimum unavoidable level. We will therefore never accept any global deal that does not limit global warming to the minimum unavoidable level, no matter what levels of compensation and assistance are promised to us...Africa will squarely and unequivocally side with those who are committed to limit global warming to the unavoidable minimum level,”  argued the late Mr. Meles Zenawi regarding the climatic variability that is affecting Africa on  03 September 2009 at the summit of Africa Partner Ship forum in Addis Ababa.
    He went on to say, “I am sure you will agree with me that we Africans have contributed virtually nothing to global warming and there is precious little that we can do to curb it. But we have no intention to free ride. We want to keep our forests intact and re-afforest those that have over the years been degraded. We want to do so precisely because such an approach is economically more rewarding and sustainable. We want to quickly adopt green technologies among other things because we do not have the dead weight of massive investment in dirty technologies. Africa is a green field for investment because it is the least developed region in the world. By partnering with us on green development, the developed world could create a more robust market and overall environment for the mitigation efforts that it alone must shoulder. In other words Africa wants to be part of the solution even on matters of mitigation if it is enabled and assisted to do so.”
    The victimization of African people, despite their little contribution in carbon emission, has got due attention from developed countries as the voice of Africa is heard loud due to Meles' efforts. His deep concern as Africa should mitigate global climate variability was with sound reasons. For instance, he mentioned as the threat will cripple the continent’s vulnerable agricultural sector, on which 70% of the population depends. All estimates of the possible impact of global warming suggest that a large part of the continent will become drier, and that the continent as a whole will experience greater climatic variability. “We know what the impact of periodic droughts have been on the lives of tens of millions of Africans. We can therefore imagine what the impact of a drier climate on agriculture is likely to be. Conditions in this vital economic sector will become even more precarious than they currently are.” quoted from his famous arguments.
    Africa will not only be hit hardest, but it will be hit first. Indeed, the long dreaded impact of climate change is already upon us. The current drought covering much of east Africa – far more severe than past droughts – has been directly associated with climate change, indeed.
    Meles turned this global adversity to an opportunity for developing countries like Africa and laid the corner stone by boldly demanding developed countries to be morally obliged to pay partial compensation to poor and vulnerable countries and regions to cover part of the cost of the investments needed to adapt to climate change.
    In February 2010, the UN named Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as co-chair of the Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, a new high-level U.N. advisory group on climate change financing. Following his passing away united nations environment programme (UNEP) also said that  “Prime Minister Meles Zenawi contributed to leading Africa's active engagement in the UN climate change negotiations in his role as Chair of the Meeting of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change. His efforts in mobilizing Africa's voice on climate change are a clear example of his legacy in advancing Pan-Africanism through intergovernmental processes and dialogue.”
Starting up green economy from Ethiopia
    Meles shouldered the responsibility to fight on behalf of the continent Africa in 1992 shortly After he came to power at the  Lem (or Green) Meeting in Addis Ababa, held in conjunction with the UN’s first ‘Earth Summit’ in Brazil.  Mr Meles championed sustainable development in Africa, fought for Africa on climate change and was a leader in Africa’s green thinking. A major influence on US president Bill Clinton’s “New Africa”, for the past 20 years Ethiopia has played a pioneering role in environmental research, management and development combined with historic experiments in ethnic federalism and democracy. In 2011 Ethiopia was the first African country to launch a Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy.

    The late Meles was not only the champion of the environment, who believed that Africa needed to embrace a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy as the central pathway to sustainable development under his leadership, he also made Ethiopia to develop a comprehensive Climate Resilient and Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy, which has the goal of transforming the country into a carbon-neutral middle income country by 2025. In this regard he realized his ambition in Ethiopia working rigorously in gearing the countries rapid development towards a green economy. Since February 2011, the CRGE initiative, under the leadership of the Prime
 Minister’s Office, Environmental Protection Authority, and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, has developed a  strategy to build a green economy. Seven sectoral teams involving more than 50 experts from more than 20 leading government institutions have been driving the initiative. The objective  is to identify green economy opportunities that could help Ethiopia reach its ambitious,yet achievable, growth targets while keeping greenhouse gas emissions low. Though the strategy primarily depended on local funding for its achievements a commendable results are also brought in pulling development partners to aid the program.
    Thanks to his own initiatives Ethiopia has played a key role in UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign, planting a total of 1.7 billion trees since early 2007. Some 12.6 billion trees have been planted worldwide in 193 countries, with Ethiopia's contribution the third-largest behind India and China. This has led Ethiopia to re-afforest and rehabilitate its degraded lands. As Ethiopia is the leading in livestock production both in Africa and at a global level, the country now sees to focus on reducing emissions by more than 15 Mt CO2e in 2030 through utlizing less emitting a partial shift towards lower-emitting sources of protein –
e.g., poultry – could yield another emission reduction of nearly the mechanization of draft power, i.e., the introduction
 of mechanical equipment for ploughing/tillage, could help to substitute
 and the likes.
    It is clear the country's power sources are for long time less emitting as it depended on hydro-power but under Mele's initiative many mega same projects has undergone or are under going include wind farm, geothermal and solar power. This in turn is employed to reduce emission through using less fossil fuel transportation like shifting to electric rail networks.
    His sudden and untimely death is shocking to the people of Ethiopia, Africa and all his partners. But,as his ambitions are translated into practicality the footprint of his legacy will be continued through high commitment of the people of Ethiopia, Africa and all development partners. His iconic deeds will remain in the mind of all people and Africa would go further to build green economy and mitigate the global thereat, climatic variability, the already started progresses will be maintained and will be further strengthened more than ever.



   

Doha climate talks stall over draft text wording

Delegates on the crucial final day of a fortnight-long UN conference report 'frustratingly slow progress'http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/doha-climate-conference-kyoto-protocol_n_2230458.html

Talks aimed at a global agreement on climate change appeared stalled on Friday, with countries failing to agree on the wording of the draft texts that will form the outcome of the fortnight-long UN conference in Doha.

Delegates reported "tough going" and "frustratingly slow progress", as a key text that was supposed to be delivered overnight in its near-final draft form was delayed, and there has been little done so far to take an overview of all the four texts in circulation, which negotiators say is needed.

Although the talks are not thought to be close to breakdown, they have been sluggish as delegates have appeared to feel little sense of urgency. The talks are supposed to finish at 6pm on Friday, but were always likely to drag on into the night and now participants appear resigned to a finish on Saturday – and that sense of resignation has not helped to inject any fresh impetus. Some delegates have blamed the Qatari presidency, which they say has not taken a firm grip on the talks, and the Saudi Arabian chair of one of the negotiating strands, who has been accused of not co-operating well with the negotiators.

However, the work on one strand – the continuation of the Kyoto protocol – is said to be close to completion.

To observers, the talks may seem difficult to follow. The problem is that the really tough negotiations are not happening at these talks – they will not start until next year. Those talks will be on drafting a global agreement, binding developed and developing countries to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, by 2015. If successful, it would be the first such global treaty.

But before that can begin, this meeting needs to sort out various details that are in the way, some of which – such as the Kyoto protocol – are hangovers from previous staging points in the 20-year talks. "This is about clearing away the clutter, leaving a clear path for the potential global agreement in 2015," said Nick Mabey, chief executive of the environmental thinktank E3G. "After this, the debate moves back to the national capitals, as countries need to decide for themselves what they are prepared to take into the new negotiations leading to 2015."

The issues needing to be cleared away include the continuation of the Kyoto protocol beyond the end of this year when its current targets expire, and without which the developing countries will not sign up to a new deal. That has always looked a relatively straightforward part of this meeting, as the EU and several other countries have long agreed to a continuation. Developing countries are disappointed that the US has always made it clear it would not join Kyoto, and that several major economies, including Japan and Canada, have abandoned the protocol, despite supporting it strongly in the past. However, most accept that having the EU and its allies signed up is enough to move forward.

Another issue is the effective wrapping up of a separate negotiating strand, the working group on long-term co-operative action. That was started because once the Kyoto protocol came into force in 2005, the US – the only major economy not to have ratified it – was excluded from some of the negotiations. As the talks on a 2015 agreement need to bring everyone back into the fold, the LCA should effectively complete its business at Doha. However, on Friday morning, there were still disagreements over the wording of its text.

The third text to be agreed is setting out a work programme to enable negotiators to meet the tight deadline of drafting a new agreement by 2015. That is not likely to be highly detailed, but needs to give negotiators time to discuss key issues such as the form of a new agreement and the technicalities of writing it.

The vexed question of developed countries providing finance to developing countries, to help them cut their carbon emissions and cope with the effects of climate change, has been a sticking point. The negotiations on finance have been grouped together into a single strand at this conference, to make them easier to manage, though ultimately the results of the deliberations will feed into the other key texts.

Developed countries have already pledged $30bn (£19bn) from 2009 to 2012, and by 2020, according to the pact signed at Copenhagen, that should reach $100bn (£62bn) a year. But there is no agreement on how to bridge the funding gap from next year to 2030. Some developing countries came into the Doha talks hoping rich countries would agree to provide $60bn (£37bn) in the short term, but that was never realistic. Others pushed for a text that would bind developed countries to increasing the finance they provide year on year from 2013 to 2020, but the US does not want to be so specific.

At the talks, EU member states helped to ease the financing issue by announcing new commitments for funds to flow from 2013, currently amounting to more than €7bn (£5bn), and counting. The UK has allocated about £1.5bn for the period 2013 to 2015, and there have been pledges from Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and one is expected from Finland.

Ed Davey, the UK climate secretary, said many developing countries had "paid tribute" to the EU for its stance. "That has helped change the dynamics of the negotiations," he said. "[The UK's] early pledging – announced in 2010 – has catalysed others and put the EU in a very strong position."

However, the exact form of words on finance in the text is still the subject of haggling, and could still prove a breaking point.

If these last sticking points are resolved, then the Doha conference will be hailed as a success and the real talks – on a 2015 treaty - can begin. Those real talks will be tougher than any in the 20-year history of climate negotiations, because they will involve deep questions over which countries should now be considered developing and which are now rich enough and have high enough emissions to be asked to make steep carbon cuts and contribute finance to help poorer countries. Those questions have never before been addressed, and they are potentially explosive areas of disagreement. Another key question is what a 2015 agreement should look like – what legal form it should take, and whether it contains specific pledges on emissions and finance from each country or something looser, and that too will take much wrangling.

It seems likely that the Doha conference will come up with resolutions and agreed texts on the small set of issues tabled for discussion here. But if it does not, and these technical and "housekeeping" issues drag on into next year, that will be disastrous because resolving these problems will eat into negotiating time that needs to be spent on the big questions, and that time is already perilously short. If the worst happens, and Doha ends in failure, it would cast doubt on the whole UN process of climate negotiations.