Pete Harrison PlanetArk 28 Apr 11;
The world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters do not expect a legally-binding deal to tackle climate change at talks in South Africa in December, two leading climate envoys said on Wednesday.
U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern and European climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard played down the chance of a breakthrough after a meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF), an informal group of 17 countries including the world's top polluters, China and the United States.
"From what I've heard in these last two days, the conclusion must be that it is highly unlikely that the world will see a legally binding deal done in Durban," Hedegaard told reporters.
"Not that they do not think it's important -- but there is just this feeling that it's simply not doable for Durban."
It is not the first time doubts have been raised over the chance of an ambitious agreement in Durban, following on from modest progress in Cancun, Mexico last year, and Copenhagen the year before.
But the poorest nations, which are most vulnerable to climate change, are still clinging to the hope of moving beyond the existing voluntary accord.
"I think that there are different views about the sort of degree of necessity or not of a legally binding agreement," said Stern. "Our view in the U.S. is that it is not a necessary thing to happen right away."
Last year's Cancun meeting is widely regarded as having saved the often fraught negotiations from collapse.
Nations agreed curbs on the loss of tropical forests, schemes to transfer clean technology to poorer nations and help them adapt to climate change impacts, and a goal for rich countries to provide $100 billion a year in aid from 2020.
But it side-stepped tougher issues, such as whether to extend or replace the Kyoto Protocol, the current agreement to limit greenhouse gases which expires next year.
Hedegaard said the EU would push for the Durban talks to make progress on tackling the emissions from ships and planes.
"It is not enough for Durban just to implement what was agreed in Cancun," she said. "Inclusion of shipping and aviation -- these kind of topics we will also push for."
Hedegaard said she would prefer the issue of shipping emissions to be tackled by the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization (IMO), but would not wait forever.
"Since 1997, IMO has had this task, without delivering, and that's why we are very clearly signaling we are losing patience," she said.
(Editing by Sophie Hares)
No binding climate deal at Durban, warn US, EU
Yahoo News 27 Apr 11;
BRUSSELS (AFP) – There will be no binding deal on emissions at this year's UN climate summit as the South African hosts and other economic powers are simply "not ready," the United States and Europe said on Wednesday.
"It is not a necessary thing to have right away," top US climate official Todd Stern said after European Union counterpart Connie Hedegaard admitted hopes of a breakthrough pact in Durban are already dead.
"The good news is that there is a general recognition of the necessity of a legally-binding agreement," EU climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard said.
"The bad news is no legally-binding agreement deal will be done in Durban."
The pair spoke after a two-day meeting of the so-called Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), a gathering of the world's 17 largest economies aimed at advancing efforts to cut greenhouse emissions, increase the supply of clean energy and mitigate global warming.
Stern said discussion focused on whether the UN summit would even articulate the goal of a legally-binding agreement "in the coming years."
"In a nutshell, our view is it would have to include all the major players -- China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa," he said, underlining that powerful states such as these are "not ready to have international, legally-binding obligations."
"I'm not even criticising that," he added, noting that China's rise, both as a major economic power and emitter, has also seen Beijing become one of the world's top developers of clean energy.
With US ratification also "a big hill to climb," a reminder that Washington did not pass the existing UN Kyoto Protocol, Stern argued that much can still be achieved even when agreements are not legally-binding.
He cited commercial international relations from post-World War II through to the 1995 formation of the World Trade Organization, insisting the WTO's predecessor "GATT wasn't legally-binding."
The key issue for participants ahead of Durban is how to bring timid agreements reached in Cancun, Mexico last December "to life," Stern said, especially getting a 'green fund' for investing in renewable energies "from paper to money flowing."
The UN climate process almost collapsed in a more ambitious effort 12 months earlier in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Stern stressed that it was too early to tell if a retreat from nuclear energy following the post-quake accident in Japan would make states less likely to commit to ambitious emissions-reduction demands.
He hinted, though, that shipping and aviation, major sectoral polluters along with farming on a global scale, were likely to be given more time to negotiate their own deals.
The International Maritime Organisation and the International Civil Aviation Organisation "are the right venues" for tackling the reliance on so-called bunker fuels, he said, although nations would seek to integrate these industries in the "relatively near term."
