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Progress in Climate Talks "Patchy, Much Too Slow," EU Says
2010-10-10 10:39:44.139 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The progress of climate talks in
China, the last formal gathering before a global summit due to
begin next month, was "very patchy and much too slow," a
senior European Union official said.
"The gap between the texts on the table at the end of the
Tianjin session and the decisions we need to reach in Cancun is
still very big," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said
in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. "A lot of work will be
needed over the coming weeks to bridge this gap."
The United Nations conference in Cancun, Mexico, which
starts on Nov. 29, should "result in a balanced package of
decisions" aimed at fighting climate change, Hedegaard said.
The 27-nation EU wants to be a leader in the fight against
global warming. It is on schedule to meet its 2020 goal of
cutting greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 1990 levels and has
said it's ready to move to 30 percent if other countries follow
suit.
It stopped short of setting a more ambitious goal at a
global climate summit in Copenhagen last year, citing a lack of
comparable effort by the U.S. and China.
In Copenhagen, negotiators failed to reach a binding deal
setting a framework for greenhouse-gas reduction for when the
Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Instead, they settled for a
political accord calling for $100 billion a year by 2020 in
climate financing for poor nations. They also vowed to stop
global temperature increases at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial times.
Climate Finance
The talks in Tianjin, which ended yesterday, brought some
progress on climate finance, technology cooperation, tropical
deforestation and adaptation to climate change, Hedegaard said.
Still, there has been "insufficient progress in
translating key elements of the Copenhagen Accord into UN
texts," she said. "The lack of progress on these issues, and
signs of backtracking on the Copenhagen Accord by certain
parties, gives us cause for concern about the balance of the
Cancun package."
Hedegaard said the EU will strive to help ensure the summit
in Mexico has a positive outcome and becomes a basis for an
"ambitious" and legally binding climate agreement "as soon as
possible."
For Related News and Information:
Most-read climate stories: MNI CLIMATE <GO>
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
--Editors: Digby Lidstone. Paul Richardson.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
