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Deadlock Risk is Significant at Climate Talks, UN Envoy Says
2010-09-23 13:03:39.545 GMT
By Alex Morales
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Deadlock remains a "significant"
risk at United Nations climate talks that start in November in
Mexico, a year after a summit in Copenhagen failed to produce a
binding global treaty, a top UN official said.
Proponents of a deal "seem to have accepted" that no
treaty will be written during two weeks of talks in the Mexican
resort, and that bodes well for the prospects of taking smaller
steps, said Halldor Thorgeirsson, a director at the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the talks.
"The obstacles to a significant outcome in Cancun remain
formidable, and the likelihood of a continued deadlock remains
significant," Thorgeirsson said today in a speech at the
political analyst Chatham House in London. Still, "a new treaty
is by no means the only measure of success," he said.
UN and national envoys have been saying chances are slim
for agreeing on a treaty to reduce global warming gas emissions
this year after the Copenhagen summit in 2009 produced only a
non-binding pact even after more than 100 world leaders
including U.S. President Barack Obama flew in to hammer out a
deal.
Christiana Figueres, who took the post of UNFCCC executive
secretary in July, has already called on nations to take smaller
steps rather than strive for an all-encompassing deal, while
Japanese and European Union envoys in March ruled out the
chances of a treaty in Cancun.
Thorgeirsson said the Cancun conference could be deemed a
success if it delivers seven key goals. Those include
formalizing pledges to cut greenhouse gases that were made in
Copenhagen, without being accepted unanimously, starting rewards
for countries that avoid deforestation, and agreeing on a global
emissions reduction target.
Paradigm Shift
Other areas of progress including developing a system to
measure report and verify emissions cuts, setting up a framework
to help countries affected by climate change adapt to its
effects, establishing a fund to channel climate aid and forming
a registry to match funding with projects that need the aid, the
official said.
Countries need to "shift from the paradigm of looking at
the task ahead as a single undertaking, where nothing is agreed
until everything is agreed, to a paradigm of incremental
progress, where decisions are taken when and where possible and
work continues on unresolved issues -- a 'nothing is agreed
until enough is agreed' paradigm," Thorgeirsson said.
For Related News and Information:
Top environment stories: TOP ENV <GO>
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Locations of global energy facilities: BMAP <GO>
--Editors: Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in Bonn at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or landberg@bloomberg.net.
