Yahoo News 17 Sep 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Representatives of the world's 17 biggest carbon polluters kicked off a week of high-stakes talks on climate change Thursday with a discussion at the US State Department.
The main aim of the week of meetings is to bridge differences ahead of the UN December 7-18 climate change conference in Copenhagen, where a pact for curbing global warming beyond 2012 -- when Kyoto Protocol obligations on cutting emissions expire -- is to be crafted.
Negotiators will meet for two days at the State Department in Washington, then move to New York next week and then on to Pittsburgh.
The meetings come as Washington tries to resume a leadership role on climate change, and follow a warning from UN chief Ban Ki-moon that world leaders need to "get moving" on climate change.
Representatives from the European Union, France, Italy, Germany and Britain were at the State Department talks, along with officials representing Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and host, the United States.
The participants belong to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, an initiative that US President Barack Obama launched in March -- a sharp change from the policies of his predecessor George W. Bush, who rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the previous UN framework on climate change.
Together the countries are responsible for 80 percent of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's a private meeting," said a State Department spokesman, adding however there would be a telephone press conference on Friday.
However a State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity said the meeting will seek to "deepen the candid dialogue among major developed and developing economies in an effort to help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the December UN climate change conference in Copenhagen."
Talks Thursday and Friday "will focus primarily on key areas of mitigation, adaptation and technology," the official said.
Michael Zammit Cutajar, who chairs the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) working group on long-term cooperative action, said in July that the United States has undergone an important mood-shift and is on the path toward "strong climate action."
Yet finding common ground on climate change remains challenging -- and that could mean difficult and even inconclusive talks in Washington, New York and Pittsburgh.
Last week, the US Special Envoy for Climate Change, Todd Stern -- who represents the United States at the talks in Washington -- told a House of Representatives panel that persistent disagreement between developed and developing nations has kept an international solution on climate change at arm's length.
Scientists have repeatedly warned climate change could affect health in many ways, ranging from malnutrition caused by drought to the risk of cholera from flooding and the spread of mosquito-borne disease to temperate zones.
UN climate strategy puts talk ahead of deal-making
John Heilprin, Associated Press 18 Sep 09;
UNITED NATIONS — Gather a hundred heads of state in the same place, get them talking privately among themselves and hope a global climate pact starts to gel.
That's the gamble the U.N. chief is taking, organizing an unusual high-level summit next week intended to build momentum for striking a deal this year on mandatory worldwide cuts in greenhouse gases.
"The very fact that more than 100 leaders from all around the world are gathered in one place — have you ever seen in climate change negotiations that such a large number of heads of state are gathered together at one place at one day?" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday while taking questions at a monthly news conference.
Only three months remain before 180 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and negotiations are proving difficult. The Kyoto accord has had mixed success in binding 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Rather than hold actual negotiations, Ban's one-day event encourages world leaders to chat informally in round-table sessions and try to collectively leapfrog beyond the confines of nationalist interests.
Adding to the heightened expectations is that U.S. President Barack Obama's first speech to the United Nations will come at this summit and deal solely with climate change, one day before he and other heads of states and ministers begin delivering their broader messages to the 192-nation General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York.
"Now, I believe that almost all the leaders of the world, they realize that this an issue of great urgency," Ban said. "I expect even though this is not a negotiating forum, the leaders will really demonstrate their strong political will."
Hardly a day goes by without a dire warning of melting glaciers, rising sea levels, more drought and disease if countries can't reach agreement at in Copenhagen.
Ban said he was encouraged that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's diplomatic debut next week at the U.N. includes making climate change a priority. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Thursday in Tokyo that he hoped the Japanese pledge to aim for a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would "encourage" the U.S. and other countries to follow suit.
In Brussels, European Union leaders called again for the United States and China, the world's two biggest polluters, and other rich and emerging economic powers to make a bigger effort on cutting their emissions and reaching a climate pact.
Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU presidency, said international negotiations on a new global climate change pact "are going too slow." The EU wants other rich countries to match its pledge to cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020.
China and the U.S. will play the biggest role in making cuts, Ban acknowledged, but Copenhagen also will hinge on how much cash the U.S. and rich nations offer developing countries to restrict emissions and install new and cleaner energy-producing technologies.
The U.S. House passed a bill this summer that would set the first mandatory limits on greenhouse gases. Factories, power plants and other sources would be required to cut emissions by about 80 percent by 2050. But a Senate version appears increasingly unlikely as lawmakers wrestle with overhauling the health care system.
Todd Stern, the State Department's special envoy for climate change, told a House panel last week that it was critical for the Senate to pass legislation to give the U.S. the "credibility and leverage" that it needs to convince other countries to reduce their pollution.
Whatever momentum for a climate deal can be built in New York next week will quickly shift to the Group of 20 summit of rich and developing countries in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 24-25.
Despite making the climate pact his No. 1 priority this year, Ban described himself as neither pessimistic nor optimistic about the world's chances.
"The current slow pace of the negotiations is a matter of deep concern," he said. "There are only 81 days to until we go to Copenhagen — and only 15 days for negotiations. Time is short. The negotiations are incredibly complex."
