Negotiators at UN climate talks discuss best formula for securing global warming agreement

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Delegates discuss way forward in UN climate talks

BARCELONA, Spain — U.N. climate negotiators said Friday that, despite low expectations for setting legally binding emissions targets next month, it is still possible to conclude a strong, 192-nation deal to define future work in fighting global warming.

Countries most vulnerable to climate change said they were incensed that rich nations were rethinking the timetable for concluding a legally binding treaty.

Delegates were spending the final day of U.N. climate talks in Spain hammering out a draft accord in which rich nations would make hard pledges to reduce emissions and to finance aid to help the world’s poorest cope with the effects of Earth’s rising temperatures.

The idea of next month’s U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen ending with a political deal, rather than a legally binding agreement, disappointed developing nations already suffering severe droughts, floods and other catastrophes blamed on rising temperatures.

The shift follows acknowledgment that several countries, including the United States, may not be politically ready to sign a legal pact by next month.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N. official who is shepherding the talks, assured that negotiators were still aiming to achieve a significant deal that would set specific goals.

Nations would agree to stick to their promises while negotiating the details of the treaty, taking as long as another year.

“Governments can deliver a strong deal in Copenhagen, and nothing has changed my confidence in that,” de Boer said.

While he said he could not guarantee promises would not be broken, it would be difficult for developed countries “to wiggle out” of written commitments they make in a Copenhagen deal.

The deal may take the form of consensus decisions, including an overarching statement of long-term objectives, along with a series of supplemental decisions on technology transfers, rewards for halting deforestation, and building infrastructure in poor countries to adapt to global warming, delegates said.

De Boer said he was looking to the United States to announce a clear emissions target for 2020. “A number from the president of the United States would have huge weight,” de Boer said.

Legislation is making its way through the U.S. Congress that set slightly different goals for reducing carbon emissions, and Jonathan Pershing, the chief U.S. delegate to the U.N. talks, declined to say whether the U.S. will be ready to submit a target for the Copenhagen accord.

At the same time, he said President Barack Obama has the authority to make a commitment without congressional approval, “but a decision on whether or not we will do it has not yet been made.”

The Copenhagen deal now expected would carry the authority of world leaders who would sign it. De Boer suggested 40 heads of government would be attending the Copenhagen summit, though the Danish government said that number was not yet been confirmed.

The head of the bloc of developing nations criticized rich nations for failing expectations after two years of tough negotiations for a legal treaty.

“Nonperformance, nondeliverance and noncommitment by the developed countries is acting as a brake for any meaningful progress,” Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping said. “We need a real change of heart and mind by the developed countries,” which he accused of seeking to “relieve themselves of the commitment by asking the poorest of the world and the most vulnerable and the most underdeveloped to subsidize their high standard of living.”

Di-Aping also complained that rich nations so far were offering too little in emissions cuts. Scientists say industrial countries should reduce emissions by 25 to 40 percent from 1990 levels to avoid climate catastrophe. Di-Aping said their pledges amounted to 11-15 percent.

The head of the Indian delegation, Shyam Saran, said Copenhagen’s success would depend on rich nations presenting significant reduction targets, but that an agreement by all 192 nations could still be binding.

“We don’t share view that it is no longer possible. If it were no longer possible, we would rather pack up and go home,” Saran said.

The delegate from Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, downplayed the tumult in negotiations and said a serious deal can still be reached next month.

“We are going to change the fundamentals of industrial civilization, so it’s no wonder there is a lot of activity going on in a negotiation like this,” Anders Turresson said.

Some delegates warned, however, that a watered-down deal could face trouble at Copenhagen.

“We look forward to Copenhagen with optimism, but we will not accept a weak, green-wash outcome,” said Alf Wills, the chief negotiator for South Africa.

A bloc of 43 island nations urged leaders of the world’s industrial nations to double efforts toward concluding a legally binding pact during the December summit.

“Weak political declarations are not the solution,” said a statement by the chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, Grenada delegate Ambassador Dessima Williams.

The charity group Oxfam International said the outrage was “understandable.”

“Rich countries must recognize that tens of thousands of forced climate migrants, increased food shortages and spiraling climate debt is not just a reality faced by poor nations, but will ultimately affect us all,” said Oxfam climate adviser Antonio Hill.

A Copenhagen deal would hinge on decisions that can only be taken at the top political level. They include: carbon emission reduction targets by 2020 from industrial countries; firm plans by developing countries to reduce the growth of their emissions; specific short- and long-term financial commitments to poor countries to adapt to climate change; and a mechanism for distributing the funds that will be controlled by the developing countries.

Even an interim deal would clear the way to mobilize funds to help poor countries. The EU has said euro5 billion to euro7 billion ($7.4 billion to $10.4 billion) would be needed in the next three years for developing nations to begin planning their first steps toward controlling their emissions and protecting themselves against the effects of climate change.

By 2020, the EU says, $150 billion (euro101 billion) a year is needed to fight climate change in the developing world.

The delay in brokering a legally binding document is significant. The only instrument for controlling carbon emissions, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012. Unless a new treaty is in place by then, no regulations will exist, threatening chaos among industries relying on predictable rules for their business development.