Belgium won the shameful "Fossil of the Day Award" on the very first day of the Paris climate conference, media reported.
Belgium on Monday received the "Fossil" award from the Climate Action Network (CAN) coalition of climate campaign groups because of the lack of agreement among different regions of the country, Xinhua reported.
Belgium is one of the few EU countries lagging behind on their carbon pollution reduction and renewable energy targets.
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.
Because of blockage on a Belgian climate agreement the country also lags behind in providing sufficient and durable climate finance.
Meanwhile, the Belgian political delegation also failed to reach a consensus on restarting old nuclear power plants that were canned over a year ago; therefore it has no defined objectives in its fight against global warming.
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"Being stuck in internal disputes, Belgium is one of the few 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 has received the "Fossil" award. At the UN 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.