London (Platts)--12Dec2007
Negotiations for a post-2012 global climate change agreement appeared to
be at "stalemate" Wednesday afternoon in Bali, according to environmental
groups, as developed countries led by the US continued to reject elements of a
draft text that would govern the talks.
At the same time, negotiators and senior UN officials played down the
disagreement, saying that the text did not need to contain too much detail.
Delegations from over 180 countries are working to craft a mandate, known
as the Bali Roadmap, that would set the stage for negotiations on a new global
climate accord to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, when its compliance period ends
in 2012.
A version of Tuesday's draft text which had been amended by the US,
Russia and Japan but had yet to be agreed by other parties, removed any
reference to a guideline for emissions reductions of between 25-40% from 1990
levels by 2020, as well as a goal of halving global emissions from 2002 levels
by 2050.
The edited text, seen by Platts, also removed any reference to
"quantified national emission limitation and reduction commitments...by all
developed country Parties [to the UNFCCC]."
One official with a developed country delegation said that the US-backed
edits were "highly plausible."
Speaking to Platts on the sidelines of the talks, Phillip Clapp, deputy
managing director of the Pew Environmental Group said: "[The figures] are only
[in the text] as a detail of the scale of the emissions reductions the world
needs. They say nothing about what any individual country must do."
But the US delegation's lead negotiator, Dr Harlan Watson, told reporters
Wednesday that "the reality is in this business that once numbers appear in
the text, it pre-determines outcomes and it tends to drive negotiations in one
direction. We want to be sure that the text we have before us is going to be
neutral."
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon appeared to agree: "Some time down the
road we have to agree on [targets]. At this time we need to launch these
negotiations to discuss in a detailed manner how the international community
should address this issue on an urgent basis," he said.
"I'm reasonably convinced that we will be able to agree on all these
issues [by the weekend]," he added.
MINISTERS NEED TO COME TO THE RESCUE, SAY NGOS
Environmental groups were alarmed by the state of negotiations on these
and other issues.
"We are really gutted to learn that the language [in the draft text] on
the IPCC has been bracketed, that language on the 25-40% range of emissions
reductions for developed parties has been bracketed, that the need [for
emissions] to peak and start to decline within fifteen years has been
bracketed," said Stephan Singer of WWF International.
"Bracketed" text refers to parts of a draft conclusion that do not have
unanimous agreement of negotiating parties.
Singer added that ministers need to "come to the rescue" during the
high-level segment of the talks, which began Wednesday.
Richard Worthington of Earthlife Africa, an environmental group observing
the talks, said "the Bali Roadmap needs to be more than a shell if we are to
get an agreement by the end of 2009. The latest developments are very
worrying. It looks like negotiators may think they can settle for a shell."
And Worthington accused the US of obstructing progress. "The US so far
has been fairly good at letting other people be their stalking horses in this
process. It's an open secret that the US would be delighted if this process
doesn't have a successful outcome," he said.
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