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s the host country France warns that the pace of negotiations at the COP21 climate talks in Paris has been very slow, Indonesia has blamed developed countries for blocking progress at the talks.

 Environment and Forestry Ministry director general for climate change Nur Masripatin, one of the Indonesian negotiators at COP21, said that developed countries had been reluctant to engage in a serious discussion especially on issues of climate finance, mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

'€œThey [developed countries] have been reluctant to be more serious in the negotiations. We have been hearing complaints [from developing countries] that the process has not been fair,'€ Nur told reporters at a morning briefing on the progress of the negotiations.

 On the issue of climate finance, developing countries have proposed that the Kyoto Protocol scheme, in which countries in the developed world provide financial assistance for developing countries to address climate change and adapt to its adverse effects, should remain in place.

 However, negotiators from developed countries at COP21 have balked at the proposal, saying that in the past two decades since the Kyoto Protocol, the economies of the majority of countries in the developing world have improved.

 '€œThis difference [in opinion] has been the toughest issue in the negotiations,'€ Nur said.

 Indonesia itself is in a difficult position as in the 20 years since the Kyoto Protocol was signed it has become a fast-growing developing nation and a member of the G20, but has continued to have limited capacity to deal with the adverse impacts of climate change.

 '€œWe have to be careful because we can'€™t alienate other developing countries,'€ Nur said.

 Earlier, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s special envoy on climate change Rachmat Witoelar said that Indonesia was currently working in an alliance with other developing countries in the G77, including China, one of the world'€™s greatest polluters, at the COP21 climate talks.

 He said that Indonesia would likely support the developing nations'€™ position of limiting the rise of the global temperature to a figure above 2° C.

 On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in his capacity as president of COP21, urged negotiators to pick up the pace so that they could meet the Dec. 11 deadline.

'€œMy message is clear: we must accelerate the process because there is still a lot of work to do,'€ he told reporters on the sidelines of the COP21 conference.

'€œOptions for compromise need to be found as quickly as possible,'€ he added.

Negotiators have been given an interim deadline of midday this Saturday to produce a blueprint, which will then be given to environment ministers to make the political decisions required for a deal.

Negotiators themselves have complained of frustration due to the slow pace of work.

Meanwhile, Alliance of Indigenous People (AMAN) Secretary General Abdon Nababan expressed his appreciation for the government'€™s strong will to preserve human rights and the rights of indigenous people during the preliminary negotiation session of the conference.

According to Abdon, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya has committed to maintain indigenous people as a topic in the negotiations.

Indonesia had the world'€™s largest number of indigenous peoples in the world, and was also the most progressive in acknowledging them, Abdon said.

He compared Indonesia to the Philippines, saying the latter had only recently paid attention to issues regarding its indigenous people, whereas Indonesia had recognized their existence in the 1945 Constitution.

'€œHowever, Indonesia has not fully seized the opportunity to take a leading role in the debate on the topic in the negotiations,'€ Abdon said in Paris on Thursday as quoted by Antara.
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