Belgium wins "Fossil of the Day Award" at Paris climate meeting

Belgium won the shameful "Fossil of the Day Award" on the very first day of the Paris climate conference, local media reported.

Belgium received this "Fossil" award from the Climate Action Network (CAN) international coalition of climate campaign groups because of the lack of agreement among different regions of the country.

Despite several years of negotiations, the regional governments of Belgium have not reached an agreement on the distribution of the climate effort for the period 2013-2020, according to the news website Lavenir.net.

Meanwhile, the Belgian political delegation also failed to reach consensus for the ongoing climate conference in Paris, therefore it has no defined objectives in its fight against global warming.

"Being stuck in internal disputes, Belgium is one of the few EU (European Union) countries lagging behind on their emissions reduction target," said Wendel Trio, director of CAN Europe.

"Moreover, fruitless disagreements did not allow Belgium to provide sufficient and durable financial support for developing countries. This is the exact opposite of what we need from the rich countries to bring to the negotiating table in Paris in order to reach a meaningful climate agreement," Trio said.

In fact, this is the second time Belgium received the "Fossil" award. At the United Nations climate conference in Lima, Peru in December 2014, Belgium earned this award due to its lack of contribution to international climate funding.

During UN climate change negotiations, CAN members vote daily for countries judged to have done their "best" to block progress in the negotiations. Endi