Sealing climate treaty 'impossible': UN

Yahoo News 28 Oct 09;

PARIS (AFP) – It will be "impossible" to conclude a comprehensive climate treaty in Copenhagen in December, but a strong political deal is still a must, the UN's top climate official said on Wednesday.

"It is physically impossible under any scenario to complete every detail of a treaty in Copenhagen," said Yvo de Boer, executive director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"But Copenhagen can and must agree to the political essentials that will make a long-term response to climate change clear, possible, realistic and well defined," he told journalists by phone.

The December 7-18 meeting in the Danish capital of negotiators from 192 countries "must see the end of negotiation and the beginning of technical process to work out all the details," de Boer said.

A final, five-day session of preliminary low-level talks within the UN framework will take place in Barcelona starting Monday.

In order to succeed, Copenhagen would have to bring "absolute clarity" on four key points, all of which remain essentially stalemated barely a month ahead of the December conference, de Boer said.

The meeting must decide by how much rich countries will cut greenhouse emissions by 2020 and 2050, and what major developing nations -- including China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia -- will do to limit growth of their emissions, he said.

In addition, rich countries must say how much they will give poor nations to help them reduce carbon pollution and cope with projected climate change impacts ranging from flood and drought to food scarcity and increased disease burdens.

Finally, the conference must determine how that financing -- set to run into hundreds of billions of dollars annually within a decade -- will be managed.

"We do not have another year to sit on our hands... The deal must be done in Copenhagen," de Boer said, noting that a treaty had to be signed and ratified before the end of 2012, when Kyoto Protocol provisions run out.

Once these political cornerstones are in place, "we need to finalise the details over the course of 2010," he added.

De Boer recalled that it took eight years to negotiate, sign and ratify Kyoto, which remains the only international agreement limiting the output of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases.

Expectations still high for U.N. climate summit: Ban
Louis Charbonneau, Reuters 28 Oct 09;

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday played up the December climate summit in Copenhagen by saying it could be a success even without yielding a legally binding agreement on reducing pollution.

He urged the 190 participating nations to reach political deals -- which diplomats said means nonbinding agreements -- on ambitious goals with the details to be worked out later.

Ban's climate adviser Janos Pasztor this week lowered expectations for the U.N. meeting on global warming in the Danish capital when he said a legally binding agreement would have to come out of talks after Copenhagen.

Diplomats and U.N. officials say getting political agreements out of Copenhagen will not be easy. Rich and poor nations are deadlocked, they say, on how to share the burden of curbing carbon dioxide emissions and aid to fund a deal.

But the U.N. chief insisted at a monthly news conference that expectations for the December summit remained high and said he was speaking daily with world leaders to encourage them to overcome the deadlock.

"We are still keeping ambitious expectations and targets," he told reporters.

He detailed several areas where the United Nations hoped for political agreements in December, the finer points of which would be worked out in 2010 and would form the basis of a legally binding agreement.

Ban said developed and developing countries should agree in Copenhagen on ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or growth of emissions.

Developing countries would need significant financial assistance to help them adapt to meet emissions targets, and this issue also should be agreed to in December, he said.

If deals can be reached on those and other matters in December, "then that can be a hallmark of success," Ban said.

RICH AND POOR NATIONS DEADLOCKED

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said earlier on Wednesday that it was important not to delay a final agreement.

"What has to be absolutely clear is that we do not have another year to sit on our hands until Mexico," where the next annual U.N. climate talks are due after Copenhagen.

The original U.N. goal had been to get a legally binding agreement on targets this year for reducing carbon dioxide emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

U.N. officials and diplomats have said privately that it would be hard to reach a final global agreement before U.S. President Barack Obama's climate measure winds it way through Congress.

His predecessor George W. Bush opposed mandatory carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets. But Obama has vowed to reverse that U.S. policy.

A U.S. Senate committee continues hearings on a bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But hopes have faded that any new U.S. climate laws will be in place before the talks in Denmark on December 7-18.

The climate talks opened in 2007, and the last set before Copenhagen is scheduled for Barcelona, Spain, next week.

(Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Robust climate deal still possible in December: U.N.
Alister Doyle, Reuters 28 Oct 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - The world can still agree a robust U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen in December and will miss a unique opportunity by delaying talks into 2010, the senior U.N. climate official said on Wednesday.

In the United States, a U.S. Senate committee continues hearings on a bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But hopes have faded that any U.S. laws will be in place before the 190-nation talks in Denmark on December7-18.

"Time is running out," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told a telephone news conference.

The U.N. talks were launched in 2007 and the last set before Copenhagen is set for Barcelona, Spain, next week.

Rejecting suggestions that big decisions might have to be delayed into 2010, Yvo de Boer said Copenhagen was a "unique window of opportunity" for a deal including deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by rich nations.

He said that only details should be left for 2010.

"I believe that Copenhagen can and must agree the political essentials" for a long-term response to global warming, he said.

"What has to be absolutely clear is that we do not have another year to sit on our hands until Mexico," where the next annual U.N. talks are due after Copenhagen.

Rich and poor nations are deadlocked about how to share out the burden of curbing emissions and aid to fund a deal. Some nations say more tough negotiations are likely in 2010 if Copenhagen ends with only a non-binding political deal.

In Shanghai, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said the United States did not expect to reach an agreement on global warming with China during President Barack Obama's visit to Beijing next month.

UNLOCK DEAL

"I don't think we are getting any agreement per se," Stern said.

A deal between the China and the United States -- the biggest emitters accounting for about 40 percent of greenhouse gases -- could help unlock a Copenhagen accord.

"Copenhagen can be a success," he said. "There's a deal to be had, but it doesn't mean we can get it."

The U.S. Senate's problems in passing legislation were evident on Tuesday when a leading Democrat expressed concerns about a goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, a cut of about 7 percent below 1990 levels.

"I have serious reservations (about) the depth of the reduction target," said Max Baucus, of Montana.

Republicans portrayed the legislation as a complicated plan that would be tantamount to a job-killing tax hike.

Developing countries led by China and India want the rich to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- far deeper than cuts considered by the Senate -- to avoid the worst of droughts, floods, wildfires, and rising seas.

De Boer said Copenhagen has to agree deep cuts in emissions by each developed nation, actions for developing nations to start slowing the rise of their emissions, aid and technology to help the poor, and a system to govern finances.

In Canberra, Australia stepped up lobbying for Copenhagen. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd agreed to join a group of leaders who will act as friends of Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen to help promote the talks.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington, Rujun Shen and David Stanway in Shanghai and James Grubel in Canberra; Editing by Angus MacSwan)