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U.S., Bolivia Say UN Climate Talks Lacking Progress (Update2)
2010-10-06 11:45:53.62 GMT
(Adds comments from Bolivian negotiator in sixth
paragraph.)
By Stuart Biggs
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Lead negotiators from the U.S. and
Bolivia said global climate-change talks in China are making
little progress as delegates get bogged down with issues
including financing and limits on carbon emissions.
Efforts to reduce output of greenhouse gases in a global
treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol accord may splinter if
no accord is reached at the next meetings in Cancun, Mexico,
Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. deputy special envoy on climate
change, said today in Tianjin.
"The consequences of not having an agreement after Cancun
are something to worry about," Pershing said in a briefing with
news organizations. "It may mean that we don't use this process
exclusively going forward."
Officials from about 175 governments are meeting in China
to craft a climate treaty and replace emissions targets set by
the Kyoto Protocol that expire at the end of 2012. Talks in
Copenhagen broke down last year over targets for industrialized
nations and verification of output cuts in developing countries.
Bolivia's delegation chief said little progress is possible
unless developed countries pledge bigger cuts.
"We don't see any kind of movement from developed
countries to increase the level of emissions reduction," Pablo
Solon, Boliva's ambassador to the United Nations, said. "If we
had a set of commitments that assured developing countries that
the measures will cool the planet, these talks would be moving
very well."
U.S. Pledge
The U.S. pledge to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from
2005 levels remains a sticking point in the talks, Solon said.
The vow amounts to a 3 percent reduction from 1990 levels, less
than the 5 percent required under the Kyoto Protocol, which the
U.S. didn't ratify.
Commitments remain insufficient to limit the average
increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit), a target that was agreed Copenhagen last year.
The Tianjin meeting is the last chance before envoys meet
in Mexico for Nov. 29-Dec. 10 talks to help reach an agreement
that even the UN has said is unlikely this year. The last
climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 failed to produce a binding
agreement even after leaders including U.S. President Barack
Obama flew in to try to hammer out a deal.
Delegates this week are negotiating two draft proposals
reached at a meeting in Bonn in August that need to be narrowed
before Cancun, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters
earlier this week.
International Oversight
"Very few paragraphs" have changed, Bolivia's Solon said.
Developing nations, including China, can't accept the kind
of stringent international oversight of their efforts to cut
domestic emissions that developed countries demanded at
Copenhagen, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Reform
Development Commission of China, China's top economic planner,
said earlier in the week.
Instead, the U.S. and developed nations should focus on
raising their emissions targets, Su Wei, China's chief
negotiator on climate change, said yesterday, according to
Agence France-Presse.
The U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse
gases, have been deadlocked over issues including pollution-
reduction goals and verification of emissions cuts.
Pershing said the U.S. was trying to reach a compromise
with developing nations on monitoring, reporting and
verification with less stringent requirements for poorer
countries. More advanced countries like China should accept a
higher standard, he said.
Transparency
"There's no question for Brazil, for an India or for a
China that they could implement an MRV program and be
transparent," Pershing said. "It makes sense for countries
with the capacity, who make major contributions to emissions
globally and have resources to implement programs."
Negotiations aren't progressing as nations stick to a line
of division between developing and developed countries that no
longer makes sense, the U.S. negotiator said. Some issues are
being "re-litigated" that were supposed to be resolved at
Copenhagen, he said, without giving details.
"My own view is that it could work, but it's going to
require a bit more fruitful discussion than we've had the last
few days," he said.
For Related News and Information:
Top renewable energy, environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Energy top news age: ETOP <GO>
Carbon data page: CARX <GO>
--With assistance by Jeremy van Loon in Berlin. Editors: Alex
Devine, Todd White
To contact the reporters on this story:
Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at +81-3-3201-3093 or
sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net.
