Latin bloc scolds rich countries at climate talks

Karl Ritter, Associated Press Yahoo News 4 Dec 10;

CANCUN, Mexico – A bloc of Latin American countries issued a stern warning to rich nations Friday that unless they commit to new emissions cuts, the U.N. climate talks in Cancun will fail.

Negotiators from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador — all members of the leftist ALBA alliance — said they would not accept the refusal by some developed countries to extend their binding emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol, the climate pact that expires in 2012.

Venezuela and Bolivia were among a handful of countries that blocked a nonbinding climate accord with voluntary emissions pledges from being adopted at last year's U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. The rules of the talks require consensus.

Without naming them, Venezuelan negotiator Claudia Salerno said "a handful" of developed countries had ruled out a second commitment period under Kyoto. She called their stance "unacceptable" and said it could hold back progress on other issues being discussed in Cancun.

"If there is no second period of Kyoto, it is very difficult that there can be any balanced package" of decisions in Cancun, Salerno said.

The fate of the Kyoto Protocol, or the shape of any agreement that succeeds it, is one of the most divisive issues in the negotiations.

Earlier this week Japan said it was not interested in negotiating an extension of the Kyoto targets, arguing it was pointless unless the world's largest polluters — China is No. 1, and the U.S. No. 2 — also accepted binding targets. U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said Russia and Canada also oppose extending their Kyoto targets.

For 13 years, since it was negotiated, the United States has rejected the Kyoto accord, partly because it made no demands on rapidly developing countries like China and India.

Venezuela and Bolivia and other members of the ALBA bloc argue that climate change is the result of a capitalist system and demand steep emissions cuts from industrialized countries deemed to have a historical responsibility for the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

Figueres said she wasn't expecting the positions of the ALBA nations and the developed countries to "dramatically change" in Cancun.

"What needs to happen here is countries need to find a compromise," she said.

She and other U.N. officials hope for agreements on secondary issues at Cancun, and expect this central dispute to extend into next year's negotiations.

Delegates at the 193-nation conference are also discussing setting up a "green fund" to disburse aid to poorer countries to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change; to make it cheaper for developing nations to obtain climate-friendly proprietary technology; and to finalize more elements of a complex plan to pay developing countries for protecting their tropical forests.

European and U.S. negotiators said the discord over extending Kyoto targets could hinder progress on those issues.

"It may be that the problems with Kyoto could completely tie this conference up, but I am very hopeful that that doesn't happen, because I think it would be a huge mistake," U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said.

EU negotiator Arthur Rung-Metzger urged the ALBA nations to compromise.

"If countries park on extreme positions, it's just not possible to come to a consensus, that is certainly something that is still hanging like a Sword of Damocles over this conference," he said.

As the climate talks drag on, the Earth continues to warm. On Thursday the World Meteorological Organization reported that 2010 is on track to become one of the three hottest years and 2001-2010 the warmest 10-year period on record.

Scientists say a gradually warming earth is expected to bring on droughts and floods with increasing frequency, and a report issued at the conference Friday said about 350,000 lives are at risk annually worldwide from such natural disasters.

Prepared by a group of vulnerable nations headed by the island state of the Maldives and DARA, a Madrid-based humanitarian research group, the Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2010 said the effects of climate change could contribute to the deaths of 5 million people by 2020 and cause as many as 1 million deaths per year by 2030 if global warming isn't slowed.

__

Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

Climate: LatAm bloc pushes on Kyoto Protocol
Yahoo News 3 Dec 10;

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) – UN climate talks in Cancun ran into a fresh problem on Friday as a group of leftwing Latin American countries said a global deal had to be linked to a fresh round of commitments to the carbon-cutting Kyoto Protocol.

"If there is no second period of commitment, it would be very difficult to have a balanced package in this negotiations," said Venezuelan negotiator Claudia Salerno.

The so-called ALBA group, which comprises Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Dominica, issued the warning on the fifth day of talks taking place under the UN flag.

The 194-party talks have until December 10 to unblock an agreement for tackling climate change beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol's present roster of commitments expire.

The Protocol is hugely supported by developing countries and has been championed by the European Union (EU).

But it has been rejected by the United States, and it does not include China, a developing country, in targeted emissions cuts, which only apply to rich-nation signatories.

As a result, the present roster of emissions pledges covers only 30 percent of the global output of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Japan on Monday said it would not support a second commitment period beyond 2012 because it made "no sense" without a wider application. Canada and Russia are also reluctant to sign up for an extension, say delegates.

"When you find that on the other side of the table they say they want to go to the beach because they say there's nothing to do and they're just wasting their time then we in the ALBA group will not allow an action where these countries get away with this and make no commitment," Salerno said.

Scientists say unbridled burning of fossil fuels has brought concentrations of carbon dioxide, a colorless, odorless and tasteless "greenhouse" gas, to record concentrations.

Without urgent action to stem these emissions, the world is on track for worsening drought, floods, storms and rising seas, spelling a threat for hundreds of millions of people, they warn.


China says some at climate talks want to "kill" Kyoto
* China says some want to end Kyoto Protocol
* Japan says won't extend carbon cuts in Kyoto
* Deepens rifts at Cancun talks on slowing global warming
Robert Campbell and Gerard Wynn Reuters AlertNet 3 Dec 10;

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec 3 (Reuters) - China accused some nations on Friday at U.N. climate talks of seeking to kill the Kyoto Protocol pact for slowing global warming after Japan said it would not agree to extend carbon cuts under the deal.

"Some countries, so far, still don't like the Kyoto Protocol," Huang Huikang, a special representative for climate change negotiations at China's foreign ministry, told a news conference at the Nov. 29-to-Dec. 10 climate talks in Mexico.

"And they even want to kill the Kyoto Protocol, to end the Kyoto Protocol," he said. "This is a very worrying movement."

He said the question of whether the 1997 Kyoto pact will survive was the main hurdle at the annual conference, which is seeking to agree to a modest package of measures to slow climate change after a 2009 summit in Copenhagen failed to work out a treaty.

Kyoto binds almost 40 developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions until 2012 and commits parties to an extension.

But Japan has been adamant that other major emitters, including China and the United States have to join in a new, broader U.N. treaty to help slow what the U.N. panel of climate scientists says will be rising temperatures with desertification, droughts, floods and rising seas.

"Japan does not want to kill Kyoto. Kyoto killing is a kind of propaganda wording," said Akira Yamada, a Japanese negotiator sitting beside Huang at a news conference. "We are not killing the Kyoto Protocol."

The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, so its backers account for just 27 percent of world emissions. A huge puzzle remains to design a new deal that would satisfy both rich and poor countries.

Developing countries favor the Protocol, which makes a clear distinction between industrialized and emerging economies, while many developed countries want a new agreement to include all major emitters.

Venezuela and Bolivia said it was "unacceptable" that several developed countries had told them there could be no agreement on new emissions targets at the round of U.N. climate talks. [ID:nLDE6B21XL]

"The message we heard to our surprise was the following: there is no chance whatsoever of a second period of pledges here in Cancun," said the head of the Venezuelan delegation, Claudia Salerno.

Carbon emissions trading markets want assurances of policies beyond 2012 to guide investments. The International Energy Agency says $18 trillion needs to be spent by 2030 to ensure a shift from fossil fuels towards cleaner energies. (Writing by Alister Doyle; Editing by Vicki Allen)

India expects to break logjam in climate talks
* India hopes US agrees to proposal on reporting emissions
* U.N. says 2010 to be among three warmest years
* Ocean acidification could harm fisheries
Timothy Gardner and Alister Doyle Reuters AlertNet 3 Dec 10;

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec 2 (Reuters) - An Indian proposal could break a deadlock between rich and poor countries over how to share the burdens of tackling global warming, India's environment minister said on Thursday before heading to U.N. climate talks in Mexico.

India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh said a proposal that would require countries to report what actions they are taking to fight global warming could win critical support from the United States and increase chances that representatives at the U.N. climate talks could reach a broader agreement.

"It is basically meant to break the logjam and it is basically meant to bring the U.S. in because without some progress in (transparency) the U.S. is not going to come on board," Ramesh said before traveling to the summit. [ID:nSGE6B104K]

Ramesh's hopeful assessment came on a day that the U.N. released more pessimistic climate news. It said 2010 would be one of the top three hottest years on record.

India recently released a plan that countries -- rich or rapidly developing -- that contribute more than 1 percent of global greenhouse gases should report their actions and their emissions to the United Nations every three years.

Jonathan Pershing, the deputy U.S. climate negotiator, was not immediately available to comment on Ramesh's assessment.

But on Wednesday he told reporters there was hope the United States and India could move forward on the issue of of measuring, reporting and verifying emissions.

"Coming in, it was quite clear that we were converging," Pershing said. "But we've not yet reached agreement."

The Indian proposal would not penalize poor countries if they did not meet pledges on emissions reductions.

HOT SEAT

Analysts said the Indian proposal provided a good foundation.

"India is clearly trying to be constructive," Michael Levi, a fellow on climate at the Council on Foreign Relations.

For the United States, an agreement with India could put pressure on China to come on board or risk looking like it is not doing enough to fight global warming.

India's Ramesh said an agreement on so-called transparency could lead to bigger agreements on climate, like protecting forests and financing.

But there was also risk for the United States. If it agrees on one of the key aspects of the talks in Cancun, it could put pressure on Washington to work out another one: long-term financing for poor countries to help them mitigate climate change and adapt to more storms, floods and heatwaves.

"It also puts the U.S. on the hot seat for the money," Levi said. The United States, Norway and other rich countries agreed at last year's climate talks in Copenhagen to financing of $100 billion per year by 2020.

Since then the U.S. climate bill failed. It was expected to set up a carbon market that would help raise money for the financing.

2010 COULD BE HOTTEST

Pressure on climate negotiators was also growing as evidence mounted that 2010 would be one of three hottest recorded and that human actions like burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests was to blame.

Michael Jarraud, the head of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, said at a news conference that 2010 could be the warmest year since 1850, the first year such records were kept. It also caps a record-warm decade. [ID:nN02236423]

"The trend is of very significant warming," Jarraud said. "If nothing is done ... (temperatures) will go up and up," he said.

And emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, threaten fish supplies. Acidification of the seas caused by carbon dioxide could threaten fisheries production and is causing the fastest shift in ocean chemistry in 65 million years, a U.N. study showed. [ID:nLDE6B12BO]

Production of shellfish, like mussels, shrimp or lobster, could be most at risk since the acidic water eats into their protective shells, according to the report.

"Ocean acidification is yet another red flag being raised, carrying planetary health warnings about the uncontrolled growth in greenhouse gas emissions," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program.