EU says its effort failed to end African boycott at UN climate talks, but no breakdown yet

EU fails to end African boycott at climate talks

BARCELONA, Spain — A top European delegate says African countries are continuing to boycott meetings at U.N. climate negotiations after talks with the European Union failed to persuade them to return.

Swedish delegate Anders Turresson says the Africans remain concerned about the low pledges by industrial countries to reduce carbon emissions.

About 50 African nations have boycotted some meetings since Monday evening at the U.N. climate talks in Barcelona. The talks are meant to prepare for next month’s major climate convention in Copenhagen.

Turresson says the EU shares the Africans’ concerns but thought their tactic “may not be very productive.” He says the talks are not in “a full deadlock” and others are under way.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — African countries boycotted meetings at U.N. climate talks Tuesday, saying that industrial countries had set carbon-cutting targets too low for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The action forced several technical meetings to be canceled at this week’s U.N. climate talks in Barcelona. Delegates warned that, unless the African protest was settled, it could set back the timetable for concluding a new climate change pact at a major U.N. conference next month in Copenhagen.

The 50 or so African countries said they would only discuss pledges submitted by wealthy countries, and that talks on other issues including carbon offsets and action by developing countries should not move forward until there is full commitment by industrial countries.

“I don’t think we can get to a result in the way we’re going now,” said Algerian negotiator Kamel Djemouai, who chairs the Africa group. “We cannot prejudge what will happen next until we see the reactions of others.”

It was the first time the Africans have taken such concerted action at the U.N. climate talks, but they have been coordinating their position over the past year to ensure unity in the final lead-up to the Copenhagen conference, said Antonio Hill, of Oxfam International.

The African walkout stymied only part of the talks, which operate in two parallel bodies. Negotiations on the overall shape of a deal and on financing for poor countries continued uninterrupted.

The larger group of more than 130 developing countries backed the African group’s action, meant “to focus the mind” of the developed countries on the most important issue, said Sudanese Ambassador Lumumba De-Aping. He also indicated that walking out was a tactic often used in the negotiating process, and did not necessarily spell doom for the talks.

Scientists say industrial countries should reduce emissions by 25 to 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, but targets announced so far amount to far less than the minimum.

Climate Network Africa, a Kenya-based nongovernmental group, accused industrialized countries of not negotiating in good faith while Africans suffer from drought and floods.

Africa is seeking higher commitments “because we are under pressure, but the response (from developed countries) is that it is politically and economically difficult for them to put numbers on the table,” said the group’s director, Grace Akumu. “For us it is a question of life and death.”

A landmark 2007 U.N. report based on the work of about 2,000 scientists predicted Africa would suffer the most from drought, agricultural damage, rising sea levels threatening coastal areas and the spread of tropical pests and diseases.

A new study published Tuesday says the glaciers on Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, have lost 85 percent of the ice they had in 1912, with more than a quarter present in 2000 gone by 2007.

The study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cited Earth’s rising temperatures as at least a partial cause. It said similar changes have occurred at Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa, as well as at glaciers in South America and the Himalayas.

Aid groups worried about the disruption on issues related to emissions. “It would be tragic if … we were prevented from building the foundation of rules and accounting systems that will ensure the effectiveness of emission targets,” said Duncan Marsh, of The Nature Conservancy.

Talks were under way to try to resume the closed-door meetings on technical issues related to emissions reductions, including identifying new greenhouse gases to be regulated and setting rules by which rich countries might offset emissions with green technology investments in poor countries.

In London, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted the climate change treaty may not be resolved this year, as nations may be unable to commit to firm emissions limits at Copenhagen.

“We may not be able to agree all the words,” Ban said after meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Ban said the Copenhagen pact would more likely be an agreement on principles — rather than specific targets for cuts.

“We need at this time the political will — if there is a political will, there is a way we can come to a binding agreement in Copenhagen,” Ban said.

The Copenhagen deal would succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which called on 37 industrial countries to reduce heat-raising gas emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. It made no demands on developing countries like India and China. The United States was the only major greenhouse gas emitter to reject the Kyoto accord.

On Monday, the U.S. came under renewed pressure to declare its intentions at the U.N. talks before the Dec. 7-18 Copenhagen meeting.

The U.S. says it is waiting for Congress to finish work on climate and energy legislation. Those bills, unlikely to be completed before the Copenhagen summit, suggest the U.S. would cut emissions only about 4 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade.

This week Republican Party senators threatened to boycott some of the congressional meetings, demanding additional studies on the bill’s cost and job impact.

Hugh Cole, climate adviser for charity group Oxfam in Southern Africa, said resolving the Africans’ protest was up to the U.S. and European Union.

“The world’s poorest nations are faced with an impossible choice — no climate deal or a bad climate deal,” Cole said in a statement. He called on EU and U.S. leaders meeting Tuesday afternoon in Washington “to signal that they are willing to play their part.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also in Washington on Tuesday to make the case for a global climate change deal to both chambers of Congress.

Associated Press Writer Desmond Butler and AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid contributed to this report from Washington, DC.