BANGKOK – U.N. climate talks in Bangkok will end Friday without
progress on the pressing issues of emission targets for rich
countries and financing for poor nations, who insist they will not
sign a global warming deal unless those matters are resolved.
For months, negotiations have been deadlocked and delegates have
begun raising doubts whether a new climate pact to rein in
greenhouse gases can be reached by the time world leaders gather in
Copenhagen in December. The pact would replace the Kyoto Protocol
which expires in 2012.
Rather than addressing the tough issues, U.N. climate chief Yvo
de Boer said late Thursday that the failure by rich countries to
agree on ambitious emission cuts and billions of dollars in
financing to help poor countries adapt to climate change has
increased the distrust between the two sides.
"People in this negotiating process mainly developing countries
say we have been engaging constructively over the past two weeks to
put meat on the bones of an agreed outcome in Copenhagen," de Boer
said.
"But we are not seeing an advance on the key political issues,"
he said. "The stark reality out there is that unless we see an
advance on the key political issues, it is very difficult for
negotiators in this process to continue their work in good
faith."
Even before the talks ended Friday afternoon, environmentalists
including the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace were already
criticizing governments for leaving the fundamental issues to
future meetings in Barcelona next month.
"With only five negotiating days, we can't continue to waste
time on missing political mandates," the WWF's Kim Carstensen told
The Associated Press.
"My concern is that without political clarity from capitals on
issues like finance, emission reduction targets and how we get
developing country actions to count in the international framework,
the next meeting in Barcelona will be another talk shop without the
political breakthroughs we need," Carstensen said.
Most countries want a new climate pact that includes measures
limiting temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, a level necessary to avoid
the worst impacts of climate change. But so far, there is no
consensus on how to reach that goal.
Industrialized nations have offered emission cuts of 15 to 23
percent below 1990 levels by 2020 _ far short of the 25 to 40
percent cuts scientists and activists say are needed to keep
temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.
In the United States, which rejected the Kyoto Protocol because
it exempted countries like India and China from obligations, a bill
that passed the House of Representatives would reduce emissions by
17 percent from 2005 levels _ about 4 percent below 1990 levels _
by 2020. The Senate is considering its own bill that would cut
emissions 20 percent.
Only Norway announced a new target at the meeting, saying it
would reduce by 40 percent, up from a previous commitment of 30
percent, by 2020.
Developing countries have said they want to do their part but
have refused to agree on binding targets and want to see more
ambitious cuts by the West. They won't sign any deal until the West
guarantees tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance.
During the Bangkok meetings, there were several studies
highlighting the cost of paying for mitigation and adaptation. The
World Bank estimated it would cost as much as $100 billion a year
through 2050 for adaptation while the International Energy Agency
estimated it would cost $10 trillion over the next 20 years if the
world wants to transition to a clean economy _ three-quarters of
the funding coming from rich countries.
But there were no breakthroughs on either a finance package or
targets, delegates said, mostly because countries did not send
their top leaders to this meeting. The United States also was
hamstrung, delegates said, because it still does not have domestic
climate legislation.