Nations inch towards new climate deal

Shaun Tandon, Yahoo News 4 Apr 08;

More than 160 nations were working Friday to clear the initial hurdle in drafting an ambitious new treaty on global warming, expected for the first time to consider rising emissions from planes and ships.

The five-day talks in Bangkok were winding up with negotiators setting a plan for how to reach a UN-backed goal of clinching a new deal by the end of 2009 to follow the Kyoto Protocol.

Major rich and poor nations are sharply divided on what action to take, despite growing global fears that climate change could cause the extinction of plants and animals within the century and put millions of people at risk.

"What is lacking here is a sense of urgency. We are all victims of climate change," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil.

According to a draft statement obtained by AFP, countries agree to study how rich nations can reduce emissions from aviation and shipping -- a rapidly growing source of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The Kyoto Protocol required rich countries to slash emissions by an average of five percent by 2012 from 1990 levels but exempted aviation and shipping, as by nature they are difficult to classify as individual nations' responsibility.

In late-night negotiations, delegates agreed to toughen language from earlier text suggesting that industry could regulate itself, delegates said.

The European Union and Norway led the way to strengthen the language, facing opposition from countries with strong travel industries or remote locations, such as Australia, Canada, Japan, Panama and Singapore, according to environmentalists monitoring the talks.

The Bangkok meeting is the first since a major conference in December in Bali, Indonesia, that set negotiations on what to do after rich countries' commitments under the Kyoto Protocol end in 2012.

It is officially tasked simply with setting a work plan to meet the Bali goal. A draft text sets four meetings next year until a final deal is reached in late 2009 in Copenhagen.

"The text is aimed at being palatable to all parties," said Alden Meyer, strategy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US pressure group, and a veteran watcher of environmental negotiations.

He said each side was staking out its position in Bangkok.

"They're setting the table for a meal and they haven't really digged in," he said. "That means there's no food fight, but that will come down the road when it gets serious."

Developing nations are pressing rich nations to commit to major funding to help them cope with climate change.

Nearly all delegates agree that the toughest issue -- how much to slash gas emissions after 2012 -- will have to wait until after the United States has a new president in January.

All three major candidates for the presidency have pledged tougher action on global warming than President George W. Bush. He backed out of Kyoto as one of his first acts in office, arguing it was too costly for the world's largest economy.

"I think people are feeling optimistic that the next administration is going to engage in a different way than Bush has," Meyer said.

The European Union has proposed that rich nations slash gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

The United States has not backed a clear figure and has insisted along with several allies that developing countries make clear commitments in the next phase.

Chief US negotiator Harlan Watson also said that calls for major aid handouts were unrealistic and the private sector was better suited to help.

Another potential point of contention is the so-called "sectoral approach."

Japan, which is far behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations, pressed in late-night negotiations for language on the approach, in which industrial sectors are judged separately on eco-friendliness.

Developing nations counter that this simply makes Kyoto goals easier for rich countries to meet.