Nations inch towards new climate deal
BANGKOK (AFP) — More than 160 nations are working Friday to clear the initial hurdle in drafting an ambitious new treaty on global warming, expected for the first time to consider rising emissions from planes and ships.
The five-day talks in Bangkok were winding up with negotiators setting a plan for how to reach a UN-backed goal of clinching a new deal by the end of 2009 to follow the Kyoto Protocol.
But negotiators were huddled in closed sessions hours after the conference was due to end amid disagreement on a Japanese proposal on industry standards that has upset developing countries, delegates said.
Major rich and poor nations are sharply divided on how to fight climate change, despite growing fears that rising temperatures could cause the extinction of plants and animals within the century and put millions of people at risk.
"What is lacking here is a sense of urgency. We are all victims of climate change," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil.
According to a draft statement obtained by AFP, countries agree to study how rich nations can reduce emissions from aviation and shipping -- a rapidly growing source of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The Kyoto Protocol required rich countries to slash emissions by an average of five percent by 2012 from 1990 levels but exempted aviation and shipping, as by nature they are difficult to classify as individual nations' responsibility.
In late-night negotiations, countries agreed to toughen language from an earlier text suggesting that industry could regulate itself, delegates said.
The European Union and Norway led the way to strengthen the language, facing opposition from countries with strong travel industries or remote locations such as Australia, Canada, Japan, Panama and Singapore, according to environmentalists monitoring the talks.
The Bangkok meeting is the first since a major conference in December in Bali, Indonesia, that set negotiations on what to do after rich countries' commitments under the Kyoto Protocol end in 2012.
It is officially tasked simply with setting a work plan to meet the Bali goals. A draft text sets four meetings next year until a final deal is reached in late 2009 in Copenhagen.
"They're setting the table for a meal and they haven't really digged in," said Alden Meyer, strategy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US pressure group, and a veteran watcher of environmental negotiations.
"That means there's no food fight, but that will come down the road when it gets serious," he said.
A key late sticking point was Japan's advocacy of a so-called "sectoral approach" on global warming in which each industry is judged separately on eco-friendliness.
Japan, which is far behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations, pressed late night Thursday into Friday for talks on the sectoral approach to be a priority next year, delegates said.
Developing nations fear that the sectoral approach makes Kyoto goals easier for rich countries to meet and could be used as a backdoor approach to require developing states to cut emissions.
US President George W. Bush backed out of Kyoto as one of his first acts in office, arguing that it was too costly and unfair by making no demands of emerging economies such as China.
Nearly all delegates agree that the toughest issue -- how much to slash gas emissions after 2012 -- will have to wait until after the United States has a new president in January.
All three major candidates seeking to succeed Bush have pledged tougher action on global warming.
"I think people are feeling optimistic that the next administration is going to engage in a different way than Bush has," Meyer said.
The European Union has proposed that rich nations slash gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
The United States has not backed a clear figure and has insisted that developing countries make clear commitments in the next phase.