Nusa Dua, Indonesia (Platts)--14Dec2007
Negotiations over a post-2012 climate change action plan slowed to a
crawl late Friday afternoon in Bali, as delegates grappled with the details of
the key elements needed for a final agreement.
Nations are meeting in Bali to set out a mandate that will govern
negotiations over a climate change agreement that will take over from the
current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
Yvo de Boer, had set a deadline of Friday midday for talks to end, in order to
close the meeting on time, but it became clear Friday afternoon that
negotiations were set to continue for some hours yet.
De Boer had told reporters at 13:30 local time (05:30 GMT) that ministers
had set up working groups to try to make progress in two key areas.
"The first group has managed to make a lot of progress in terms of
deciding agenda items regarding adaptation, technology transfer and financial
resources," he said.
"The second group is focusing on the preamble language that should be put
at the beginning of the decision, including the question of how to refer to
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," he added.
The IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report earlier this year, in
which it advised that emissions cuts of between 25-40% were needed to prevent
dangerous climate change.
The US is reportedly maintaining its position that any reference to
actual emission reduction figures would "prejudge the outcome" of the two-year
negotiating process.
Another debate reportedly centered on a US proposal that there should be
common reference to emissions mitigation efforts by developed and developing
countries, rather than separate references.
De Boer said that the current proposal contained "one paragraph that
refers to developed countries, and one paragraph that refers to developing
countries."
The UNFCCC head added that some suggestions put forward by negotiators in
these groups were "more appropriate to the first days of a two-week conference
rather than the last day."
Asked whether the meeting could end without an agreement, de Boer said
"It's possible, but it won't happen, because such public pressure has been
built up [on parties] to deliver a result, that I do not believe ministers
will be able to leave without a political answer to the science."
"Everyone is really working hard to achieve a result," he added. "Nobody
wants to see this process fail, and nobody wants to be the country that caused
the failure."
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