Climate talks look set to end without agreement
Source: Agencies |
December 11, 2011, Sunday
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Some ministers and top climate negotiators left Durban, South Africa, without an agreement yesterday, jeopardizing the momentum needed in the fight against global warming.
Negotiators from 194 nations had worked straight through Thursday and Friday night. Nearly 24 hours after the two-week-long talks were to have wrapped up Friday, delegates appeared stuck on issues related to the next phase of fighting climate change. An indecisive outcome will be an embarrassment to South Africa, hosting the UN climate talks for the first time.
If no decision is reached, an additional midyear conference could be called to complete the agenda, or government ministers could meet on the sidelines of a major environmental summit in Brazil next May.
Chief among the unresolved differences was a clause encouraging countries to pledge greater reductions of greenhouse gases and to close what is known as the emissions gap. More than 80 countries have made either legally binding or voluntary pledges to control carbon emissions. But taken together, they will not go far enough to avert a potentially catastrophic rise in average temperatures this century, according to scientific projections.
Concessions made
European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said a lack of ambition could derail progress made on a host of other issues.
Countries had made concessions that they had resisted for years, and it would be "irresponsible" to lose that momentum now, she said.
"We are working to the very last minute to secure that we cash in what has been achieved and what should be achieved here," she said.
Strong language on curbing emissions is important to small islands endangered by rising ocean levels and by many poor countries who live in extreme conditions that will be worsened by global warming.
These island states and poor nations backed an EU plan to begin talks on an agreement that would come into effect no later than 2020.
As negotiations progressed, the US and India eased their objections to compromises.
Under discussion was an extension of binding pledges by the EU and a few other industrial countries to cut carbon emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the only treaty governing global warming. Those commitments expire next year.
The EU, the primary bloc bound by commitments under Kyoto, said an extension was possible, on the condition that new talks would start on an accord to succeed Kyoto. The talks would conclude by 2015, allowing five years for it to be ratified by national legislatures. The plan insists the new agreement equally oblige all countries, not just the few industrial powers, to abide by emission targets.
Developing countries are adamant the Kyoto commitments continue since it is the only agreement that compels any nation to reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting developing countries. The US never ratified it for that reason.
But for the first time developing countries were talking about accepting legally binding targets on their own emissions, "and that's a very big deal," said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. "That reflects a major macroeconomic and geopolitical change" in climate negotiations.
Negotiators from 194 nations had worked straight through Thursday and Friday night. Nearly 24 hours after the two-week-long talks were to have wrapped up Friday, delegates appeared stuck on issues related to the next phase of fighting climate change. An indecisive outcome will be an embarrassment to South Africa, hosting the UN climate talks for the first time.
If no decision is reached, an additional midyear conference could be called to complete the agenda, or government ministers could meet on the sidelines of a major environmental summit in Brazil next May.
Chief among the unresolved differences was a clause encouraging countries to pledge greater reductions of greenhouse gases and to close what is known as the emissions gap. More than 80 countries have made either legally binding or voluntary pledges to control carbon emissions. But taken together, they will not go far enough to avert a potentially catastrophic rise in average temperatures this century, according to scientific projections.
Concessions made
European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said a lack of ambition could derail progress made on a host of other issues.
Countries had made concessions that they had resisted for years, and it would be "irresponsible" to lose that momentum now, she said.
"We are working to the very last minute to secure that we cash in what has been achieved and what should be achieved here," she said.
Strong language on curbing emissions is important to small islands endangered by rising ocean levels and by many poor countries who live in extreme conditions that will be worsened by global warming.
These island states and poor nations backed an EU plan to begin talks on an agreement that would come into effect no later than 2020.
As negotiations progressed, the US and India eased their objections to compromises.
Under discussion was an extension of binding pledges by the EU and a few other industrial countries to cut carbon emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the only treaty governing global warming. Those commitments expire next year.
The EU, the primary bloc bound by commitments under Kyoto, said an extension was possible, on the condition that new talks would start on an accord to succeed Kyoto. The talks would conclude by 2015, allowing five years for it to be ratified by national legislatures. The plan insists the new agreement equally oblige all countries, not just the few industrial powers, to abide by emission targets.
Developing countries are adamant the Kyoto commitments continue since it is the only agreement that compels any nation to reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting developing countries. The US never ratified it for that reason.
But for the first time developing countries were talking about accepting legally binding targets on their own emissions, "and that's a very big deal," said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. "That reflects a major macroeconomic and geopolitical change" in climate negotiations.
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