Rich must make clearer climate cuts: UN

* "Absolutely critical" to spell out pledges clearly
* Mexico seeks cornerstone of new climate deal-Figueres
* U.N. talks to fall short of treaty
Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;

OSLO/LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Rich nations must spell out their plans for cutting greenhouse gases more clearly to enable U.N. talks in Mexico to agree the cornerstone of a pact to slow global warming, the U.N.'s climate chief said.

Christiana Figueres said the annual Nov. 29-Dec. 10 meeting in Mexico would fall short of a U.N. treaty to combat climate change, saying countries learnt there was no "magic bullet" for a quick new U.N. accord at a Copenhagen summit last year.

She urged rich nations to clarify promises to cut greenhouse gases, many of which have not been written into domestic laws, and also admit they were too weak to avert damaging climate change.

"It is absolutely critical that these mitigation pledges that are on the table be formalised and recognised as a first and necessary but insufficient step," she told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit on Wednesday.

"Governments do need to double their efforts between now and Cancun," she said of the talks among environment ministers to be held in the Mexican Caribbean resort.

She said promises so far for cuts in emissions fall short of those needed to limit a rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times, a ceiling set at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen last December.

Figueres noted that many developing states wanted temperature rises limited to below 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more floods, droughts, mudslides and rising sea levels.

Many promised curbs on greenhouse gases, mainly by cutting emissions from fossil fuels, are hedged. The European Union plans a cut of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 with a cut of 30 percent if others act. Japan plans a cut of 25 percent, but only if there is an ambitious U.N. deal.

The U.N. talks are meant to agree a successor climate deal to the Kyoto Protocol whose first round ends in 2012.

U.S. CURBS

Some rich nations, notably Japan and Canada, say they can only agree new binding emissions cuts when the United States -- which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol -- does the same.

Figueres, who heads the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said Washington could bring plans in Cancun even though the Senate has failed to enact President Barack Obama's call for a law for cuts of 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

She said Cancun could agree elements of a dea, such as a fund to help poor nations curb emissions and adapt to global warming, a system to protect tropical forests or ways to share green technology.

A set of decisions in Cancun would be "the cornerstone on which (nations) may choose to build" in coming years. She said it was unclear they would try to set a deadline for a treaty.

She said among good news was that studies showed that rich nations had collectively promised about $28 billion in fast-start aid for developing nations from 2010-12.

But she said some of it fell short of being "new and additional" under a pledge in Copenhagen to provide funds approaching $30 billion for the three years, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.

She also said that only the United Nations, not alternative groups or bilateral deals, could drive a global fight against climate change since it comprised all nations. "The multilateral process is...cumbersome and necessarily a slow process...but absolutely indispensable." (Additional reporting by David Fogarty in Singapore; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Hopes fade for Mexico climate tallks
* Low hopes for U.N. talks in Cancun, Mexico
* Disputes between China and U.S. on climate change
* Some suggest G20 may be better route than U.N.
Alister Doyle, Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;

OSLO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Hopes for a deal on climate change at U.N. talks in Mexico next month have faded, undermined by splits between America and China and by fears the 194-nation process is too unwieldy to work out a pact to slow global warming.

Experts told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit the Nov. 29-Dec. 10 annual meeting of environment ministers in Cancun might at best agree steps such as a new fund to help poor nations or ways to share green technology.

But there are risks of deadlock.

"If Cancun is a big disappointment, achieving nothing or not much, then I think a lot of governments around the world will start to say: What comes out of this process?" European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said.

"The world's citizens will be sick and tired if all we achieve at Cancun is a blame game over who is to blame for not doing anything," she said.

Most nations gave hopes of a quick all-encompassing treaty to curb greenhouse gases after world leaders at a 2009 summit in Copenhagen failed to work out a deal to avert projected heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

Even a patchwork of smaller deals is now not certain for Cancun.

"We are in a very, very troubling situation," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, saying many nations blamed the economic downturn for less action.

But he predicted that factors including more extreme weather, such as the floods in Pakistan or the drought in Russia that pushed up grain prices, would eventually bring global cooperation on a binding U.N. deal.

Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said that the Copenhagen summit had taught the world that there was no "magic bullet" to solve climate change.

She said Cancun can agree a set of decisions -- such as on finance, technology or measures to protect tropical forests -- that might be turned into a formal treaty at later meetings.

"Governments do need to double their efforts between now and Cancun," she said.

GROUP OF 20

Some experts say the talks could shift from the United Nations to other groups, such as the G20 which includes all big emitters -- China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and India.

"The talks are going nowhere," said Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist". He said the world should abandon the U.N. process and agree to invest $100 billion a year in new clean technologies such as wind or solar power.

Figueres and Steiner said it was wrong to predict the demise of the U.N. track.

An objection to groups such as the G20 or G8 was that they excluded 3 or 4 billion people in poor nations, from Bangladesh to small island states in the Pacific, who have done little to cause global warming but are most at risk.

The world cannot afford to ignore their views, Steiner said.

"The multilateral process is ... cumbersome and necessarily a slow process ... but absolutely indispensable," Figueres said.

Last week in China, a final round of preparatory talks for Cancun was hit by disputes between Beijing and Washington, the top greenhouse gas emitters, about how to share out responsibility for combating climate change.

The United States, where President Barack Obama has failed to persuade the Senate to agree emissions cuts by 2020, says China must do far more. Beijing retorts that Washington must take the lead as the world's richest economy.

Investors have scant hopes for Cancun.

"It would be nice to get a sense that direction is moving forwards rather than backwards," said Rob Lake, head of sustainability and governance at Dutch pension fund APG.

A U.N. advisory group agreed in Ethiopia on Tuesday that it was feasible for rich nations to keep a promise made in Copenhagen of raising $100 billion a year in aid for developing nations from 2020 despite austerity in many donors.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who co-chaired the talks, said penalties on carbon emissions would be a major source of the funds. "I hope that this report will be ... a useful input to the (U.N.) negotiations," he said. (Additional reporting by Pete Harrison in Brussels, David Fogarty in Singapore, Gerard Wynn and Nina Chestney in London and Ernest Scheyder in New York; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Japan sees China, India backsliding on climate
* Japan urges emerging nations to keep Copenhagen pledges
* Copenhagen accord covers over 80 pct of global emissions
* Japan keeps looking to bilateral emission-reduction deals

Risa Maeda Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;

TOKYO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - China and India are deviating from an accord they took part in last December to fight global warming, slowing the progress of U.N. climate talks, a key delegate from the Japanese government said on Wednesday.

Jun Arima, Deputy Director-General for Environmental Affairs at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, added that the backtracking undermined Japan's willingness to contribute funds that developing countries are seeking to mitigate the impact of cutting greenhouse gas emissions on their economies.

Facing the risk of a deadlock in U.N. talks, Japan will keep trying to make bilateral deals with countries in Asia to reduce CO2 emissions blamed for warming the globe, employing Japanese clean-energy technologies, and aim to achieve its own emission-reduction pledge, Arima told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.

"As a negotiator, it is impossible to ask taxpayers here to shoulder the cost for mitigation so long as there is little transparency in emission cuts by developing countries," he said, referring to resistance to accepting transparent ways to measure, report and verify claimed emission cuts.

Arima said he was disappointed to see China and India undermining their pledges for emission cuts listed under the Copenhagen Accord, because the deal, if and when accepted as the basis for a legally binding agreement, would cover more than 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

China has responded to developed countries' criticisms on climate issues by stating that it is taking action, while the advanced economies are responsible for most of the emissions fuelling global warming. [ID:nSGE69801R]

The United Nations' Kyoto Protocol, which commits almost 40 rich nations excluding the United States to curb emissions by 2012, covers less than 30 percent of the total.

"We'd like to keep seeking a legally binding pact with balanced responsibilities between developed and developing countries, based on the Copenhagen Accord," Arima said.

In August, Japan selected 15 groups of companies that aim to offset a portion of the world's fifth-biggest emitter's greenhouse gas output by offering low-carbon technologies in eight Asian countries. [ID:nTOE678084]

In return, Japan is expected to use the offsets generated by any such bilateral technology transfer agreements to help it meet a pledge to cut its greenhouse emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. That pledge is conditioned on all major emitters adopting similar targets.

The government has closed a second tender to subsidise companies to do feasibility studies on such emission-reduction plans.

The number of applications for the second and last round totalled about 50, Arima said, reflecting high corporate interest. The results are expected to be announced next week.

One option to make bilateral deals attractive to emerging countries would be for the Japanese government or corporations to buy all of the carbon offsets generated by the adoption of Japan-originated technology, he said.

"There is risk to taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the U.N. talks because global warming is happening, and we should encourage private investment in this sector," he said. (Editing by Edmund Klamann)