Rich Nations Fail to Take Lead at Climate Talks - UN
GERMANY: June 13, 2008
BONN, Germany - Industrialised nations are failing to lead enough at UN
climate talks in Bonn even as developing states are showing interest in a
new global warming treaty, the UN's top climate official said on Wednesday.
Yvo de Boer also predicted that US climate policy would be more ambitious
under either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, the two main
candidates to succeed President George W. Bush from January 2009.
"We're not at the moment seeing the leadership from industrialised countries
which I think is essential," de Boer told Reuters at June 2-13 climate
talks, part of a marathon meant to end with a new world climate treaty by
the end of 2009.
"But we are seeing a huge willingness on the part of developing countries to
engage" in working out a new pact in return for aid and technology, he said.
De Boer is head of the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat.
Among examples, he said Mexico favoured a new financial mechanism funded by
both rich and poor to slow climate change while South Africa had outlined
ways to cut its emissions by 50 percent. India plans this month to issue a
new climate strategy.
Industrialised nations are meant to take the lead by targeting deeper cuts
in greenhouse gas emissions beyond the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto binds 37
industrialised nations to cut emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990
levels by 2008-12.
Developing nations, outside Kyoto along with the United States which views
the pact as flawed and too costly, have agreed at least to slow the rise of
their emissions as part of the new pact to be agreed in Copenhagen in 2009.
But they say they will need new technologies, such as solar or wind power,
and cash partly to help them adapt to impacts of climate change such as more
droughts, more powerful storms, crop failures or rising sea levels.
OIL, FOOD
De Boer said soaring oil prices were maintaining interest in renewable
energy and curbing use of fossil fuels despite worries about extra costs of
fighting climate change amid high food prices and an economic slowdown in
some nations.
"In many sectors of the economy it only increases the interest to look at
production costs," he said.
De Boer said developed nations should focus more on targeting 2020 curbs on
emissions of greenhouse gases than on longer-term goals such as halving
global emissions by 2050 which is under consideration for a Group of Eight
summit next month.
"I kneel in front of my bed every night and hope that we're going to get a
2020 commitment by the G8 countries but I don't think my prayers are being
heard at the moment," he said.
He said that 2050 goals were less relevant to investors who want to know
rules, for instance, for investing in coal-fired power plants or wind farms
as soon as possible.
Japan, which will host the G8 summit, announced a goal of cutting its
emissions by 60-80 percent by 2050 on Monday.
And Bush said on Tuesday that a global climate agreement was possible during
his presidency. The US is sponsoring talks among major emitters, aiming to
agree cuts this year that would feed into the UN pact by the end of 2009.
"I think it's moving as fast as you can realistically expect," de Boer said
of the Bonn talks, adding that challenges remained daunting for a deal by
the end of 2009.
-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/
(Editing by Matthew Jones)
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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