Kyoto Pact Rift Threatens Progress At U.N. Climate Talks

David Fogarty PlanetArk 6 Apr 11;

Poorer nations upped the ante on rich countries at U.N. climate talks on Tuesday by demanding that the world's main climate treaty be extended from 2013 and for industrialized countries to deepen carbon-cutting pledges.

Failure to do risked scuttling drawn-out and often fraught negotiations on ways to slow the growth of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and avoid greater extremes of weather and rising sea levels.

The talks in Bangkok formally began on Tuesday and are the first major session after talks last December in the Mexican resort of Cancun ended with a series of agreements on a $100 billion climate fund and other steps, such as a scheme to transfer clean technology for poorer nations.

But Cancun put off the tougher issue over the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, which binds nearly 40 industrialized nations to emissions targets during its 2008-12 first phase.

The April 3-8 Bangkok meeting is meant to expand on the Cancun agreements but arguments over Kyoto's future risk overshadowing progress.

"It is essential to find a way forward on this issue, which is particularly pressing given the growing possibility of a gap after 2012," U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told delegates.

The tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu, which faces being wiped off the map by rising seas, urged the meeting to focus solely on the future of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

"We are concerned that we are going around in circles and making no progress. We are concerned that we have no guarantee that there will be a Kyoto Protocol at the end of this year," Tuvalu delegate Ian Fry told the gathering.

He urged nations that did not support an extension of Kyoto to leave the room, triggering applause.

Japan, Canada and Russia say they are opposed to extending the pact from 2013, saying all major emitting nations be brought under a new and broader legally binding agreement. This includes the United States which never ratified Kyoto and says it will never join it.

ONLY LEGAL PACT

Developing nations say Kyoto is the only legally binding instrument and rich nations must boost their pledges to help the world stay below an average rise of 2 Celsius, a pledge nations agreed to in Cancun.

Under Kyoto, developing nations only have to take voluntary steps to curb emissions growth from industry. They are firmly opposed to taking any targets and say they must let their economies grow to lift millions out of poverty.

Impatience is growing during the talks, which began with a series of informal workshops on Sunday, with poorer nations pointing to the increasing impact of climate change, such as storms, droughts and crop failures.

The Cancun meeting put off a decision on Kyoto until a major meeting at the end of this year in Durban, South Africa. But the United Nations fears no decision will be taken on the shape of a new pact at those talks, almost certainly leading to a gap between the end of Kyoto's first phase at end-2012 and any future agreement.

This is a major worry for investors because there will be no certainty on how a $20 billion carbon market under the Kyoto Protocol would function. The market also underpins billions in investments in clean energy projects in poorer nations.

Australia, on behalf of an umbrella group of nations including Japan, Russia and Canada, said group members were "all committed to be part of a balanced, environmentally effective and comprehensive global deal."

But Dessima Williams of Grenada, speaking on behalf of a 43-member alliance of small island states, said it was time for rich nations to show if they had the appetite to deepen their emission cut pledges.

The United Nations says the pledges on the table are far below what is needed to have a medium chance of avoiding a 2C rise.

"To KP or not to KP is not the question," Saudi Arabia told the meeting, referring to the Kyoto Protocol, adding the world had repeatedly missed chances to decide on the shape of new climate pact.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

UN climate talks begin amid Kyoto Protocol feud
Karl Malakunas Yahoo News 5 Apr 11;

BANGKOK (AFP) – United Nations talks aimed at combating global warming began on Tuesday with countries feuding over who should commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions under an updated Kyoto Protocol.

The four days of negotiations in Bangkok are the first for the year, kicking off a race to try and achieve consensus on a wide range of hot-button issues in time for a crucial annual UN climate summit in South Africa in November.

In her opening address to the talks, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres warned that breakthroughs made at the last summit in the Mexican resort of Cancun could be jeopardised by the stalemate over the Kyoto Protocol.

"The full implementation of the Cancun agreements can only become an important step forward for the climate if there's a responsible and clear way ahead on the Kyoto Protocol," Figueres said.

Signed in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol saw most developed nations agree to legally binding commitments on curbing their greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming.

Those commitments are due to expire at the end of 2012 and, if there is to be a second round of legally binding pledges, they would need to be made at the UN's next climate summit in Durban.

But Japan and Russia have firmly opposed extending the protocol because it excludes the world's two biggest polluters -- China and the United States -- and therefore only covers about 30 percent of global emissions.

Australia has also said it would only agree to a second round of commitments if all major emitters were part of the process.

Developing countries, including China, did not have to commit to cutting emissions as part of the Kyoto Protocol and most of them maintain this should remain the case.

Meanwhile, the United States, which refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, has given no indication it would agree to any future legally binding emission reduction commitments.

In the first session of the Bangkok talks, parties gave few signs of changing their positions.

Delegates from a diverse range of developing countries, including China, Tuvalu, Egypt and Venezuela, insisted that rich nations must commit to a second phase of emission reduction commitments at the Durban summit.

The Australian and Japanese delegates, meanwhile, reiterated their countries' positions that all big polluters should have to commit to cutting emissions.

The debate has increased the likelihood of the Kyoto Protocol commitments expiring with only a framework of non-legally binding pledges from most developed and developing countries to fill the void.

Those pledges were made at the Cancun summit.

But developing nations warned this would lead to a greatly diluted global effort to combat climate change involving voluntary targets for rich countries.

"We cannot allow ourselves to move to a weaker structure and a less demanding regime," Venezuelan delegate Claudia Caldera said in her address to the Bangkok forum.

At the Cancun summit, all nations also pledged "urgent action" to keep temperatures from rising no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

But Figueres has repeatedly warned those Cancun pledges are not nearly good enough to keep temperatures from rising less than the crucial two degrees Celsius threshold.

She called again on Tuesday for all countries to offer much more ambitious emission reduction pledges in time for an updated Kyoto Protocol.

"For Durban to be a success, the unanswered political questions need to be addressed. Most importantly the level of ambition and the legal nature of mitigation (emission reduction) commitments after 2012," she said.

The talks in Bangkok, preceded by two days of informal negotiations, will be followed by similar lower-level meetings in Germany in an effort to lay the foundations for ministers and heads of state to reach agreement in Durban.