Obama holds up deal on climate

Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 14/12/2008 Page: 48

DEVELOPING countries offered more emission cuts than anticipated and richer nations mainly offered less, but global climate negotiators have wrapped up lacklustre talks that UN officials said were still on track for a new treaty by December 2009. In a final day of talks, negotiators agreed on principles of financing a fund to help the world's poorest and most vulnerable nations cope with the effects of climate change.

Earlier, they approved a mechanism to incorporate forest protection into efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But basic questions over an equitable balance of emissions cuts, between richer and poorer nations, for the most part remained unresolved, particularly because many richer nations baulked at making firm or ambitious promises to cut emissions in the coining decade.

"We got the bare minimum of what we needed from the talks," said Jennifer Haverkamp, international climate policy director for the Environmental Defence Fund. "There's a lot to do and less than a year to do it." Negotiations have been hampered by growing concerns in Europe, long the world leader in pushing a climate deal, about the costs of cutting emissions as its industries come under pressure from a global recession.

Despite those worries, however, Europe managed to sign its own climate agreement, committing the region to a 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020, as well as a doubling of use of renewable energy and a 20 per cent boost in energy efficiency. President-elect Barack Obama's promise to make climate change a priority has produced as much frustration as enthusiasm, simply because his negotiators are not yet at the table, which has led others to delay decisions on cuts until a new US proposal arrives.

Negotiators "want to be sure they're not committing their economies and populations to some kind of quixotic emissions reductions regime, which costs them much more than their neighbours and export competitors", said Henry Derwent, International Emissions Trading Association president and a former UK climate negotiator. One of the brightest spots was a series of vows by major developing countries to cut their own greenhouse gases, in recognition of the global scope of the problem and in line with promises made at talks last December in Bali.

Brazil announced a new commitment to cut deforestation by 70 percent by 2017, a move that would effectively cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third. South Africa has promised to cut emissions growth by 2020 and begin reductions by 2030, while Mexico has said it will cut emissions, measured at 2002 levels, by half by 2050. Many nations expressed frustration that richer countries, responsible for most of the emissions that have brought climate change, have offered ambitious cuts mostly for 2050, with little firm promise of action in the crucial intervening decades.