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By Alex Morales and Kim Chipman
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Negotiators at United Nations climate talks agreed to U.S. demands, dropping specific targets on greenhouse-gas emissions from a draft document in order to salvage an agreement that will guide discussions on a global-warming treaty over the next two years.
The European Union and developing nations have pushed for the agenda to state that industrialized nations should reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. That would give future negotiations a clear goal, they said.
The U.S. argues that talks should first focus on ways to reduce emissions blamed for climate change, and then discuss specific targets. Delegates meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali are trying to bridge the gap between the EU and U.S., the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas, and salvage the UN talks on their final day.
``Things are looking good,'' said Barbara Helfferich, an EU spokeswoman, in an interview in Bali, where protesters dressed as polar bears marched in 90-degree (32 degrees Celsius) temperatures.
The latest text draws a compromise by still including a statement that developed countries need to make emissions ``reduction commitments,'' language the U.S. had wanted replaced with ``mitigation actions.''
EU `Insists'
The U.S. proposal, made during negotiations that carried on until about 3 a.m. local time, was described as ``not helpful'' by the EU, which is insisting on emissions targets. Talks are proceeding after ``the U.S. changed their attitude a little bit,'' German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, without being more specific.
``Underneath, people want to reach an agreement,'' U.K. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, one of about 30 negotiators debating the contentious language, said in an interview.
Environmental groups identified the U.S., Japan and Canada as the main obstacles to progress in Bali. Campaigners from Avaaz.org took out a full-page advertisement modelled after those for the 1997 film ``Titanic'' in today's Jakarta Post. The ad bears the photos of U.S. President George W. Bush flanked by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper above the title ``Bali,'' and the slogan: ``No targets, no icebergs, just global disaster -- coming soon.''
``The U.S. are acting like first class passengers on a jumbo jet who believe that a catastrophe in economy class won't affect them,'' said Tony Juniper, director of London-based environmental group Friends of the Earth International, at the Bali meeting. ``If we go down, we go down together.''
Gore Remarks
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who earlier this week was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness of climate change, urged delegates yesterday to move ahead on the new treaty without the U.S., with the understanding that President Bush will be leaving office in almost a year. Gore shared the prize with a UN panel of scientists that reported global warming is very likely caused by humans.
``The United States is the world's most powerful economy, the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and therefore it has to be part of the solution,'' said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the talks.
Delegates from more than 150 countries are in the final hours of talks to hammer out a two-year negotiating agenda leading to the signing of a new global treaty to fight global warming to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The conference has made progress in some areas. Delegates agreed on how to manage a pool of money that draws its income from United Nations emissions markets, and will pay grants to developing nations to help them adapt to the effects of global warming such as flooding and drought.
Island Nation
Taavau Teii, deputy prime minister of Tuvalu, said the adaptation fund will benefit his country, a group of nine palm- fringed islands in the Pacific whose terrain lies mostly less than 6 feet (2 meters) above sea-level.
``We listen to the experts, and if they say that Tuvalu will be immersed under the water over the next 20 years, then that is a very critical position for us,'' Teii said.
Negotiators also decided on how to boost funding to aid the transfer of clean-energy technologies such as wind turbines to poor nations from developed countries.
The Global Environment Facility, a Washington-based group that works with the UN and the World Bank to fund development projects, may provide funding for technology transfer initiatives such as buying licenses for low-carbon technologies.
An agreement aimed at rewarding developing nations for preserving forests is being put back on the table after an initial consensus late yesterday as some countries question the exclusion of conservation efforts in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Forest Loss
Reducing emissions from forest loss and damage are a main priority of the discussions because the issue wasn't dealt with in the existing Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012.
De Boer said yesterday that details needed to be hammered out by noon today for the conference to end on time. That deadline passed without agreement.
``Wise ministers will have booked their planes no earlier than Saturday evening,'' de Boer said. ``I'm hearing interventions that judging by their length and technical detail would probably have been more appropriate for the first day of a two-week conference rather than the last day.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, at [email protected] ; Kim Chipman in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, at [email protected] .
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Negotiators at United Nations climate talks agreed to U.S. demands, dropping specific targets on greenhouse-gas emissions from a draft document in order to salvage an agreement that will guide discussions on a global-warming treaty over the next two years.
The European Union and developing nations have pushed for the agenda to state that industrialized nations should reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. That would give future negotiations a clear goal, they said.
The U.S. argues that talks should first focus on ways to reduce emissions blamed for climate change, and then discuss specific targets. Delegates meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali are trying to bridge the gap between the EU and U.S., the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas, and salvage the UN talks on their final day.
``Things are looking good,'' said Barbara Helfferich, an EU spokeswoman, in an interview in Bali, where protesters dressed as polar bears marched in 90-degree (32 degrees Celsius) temperatures.
The latest text draws a compromise by still including a statement that developed countries need to make emissions ``reduction commitments,'' language the U.S. had wanted replaced with ``mitigation actions.''
EU `Insists'
The U.S. proposal, made during negotiations that carried on until about 3 a.m. local time, was described as ``not helpful'' by the EU, which is insisting on emissions targets. Talks are proceeding after ``the U.S. changed their attitude a little bit,'' German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, without being more specific.
``Underneath, people want to reach an agreement,'' U.K. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, one of about 30 negotiators debating the contentious language, said in an interview.
Environmental groups identified the U.S., Japan and Canada as the main obstacles to progress in Bali. Campaigners from Avaaz.org took out a full-page advertisement modelled after those for the 1997 film ``Titanic'' in today's Jakarta Post. The ad bears the photos of U.S. President George W. Bush flanked by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper above the title ``Bali,'' and the slogan: ``No targets, no icebergs, just global disaster -- coming soon.''
``The U.S. are acting like first class passengers on a jumbo jet who believe that a catastrophe in economy class won't affect them,'' said Tony Juniper, director of London-based environmental group Friends of the Earth International, at the Bali meeting. ``If we go down, we go down together.''
Gore Remarks
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who earlier this week was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness of climate change, urged delegates yesterday to move ahead on the new treaty without the U.S., with the understanding that President Bush will be leaving office in almost a year. Gore shared the prize with a UN panel of scientists that reported global warming is very likely caused by humans.
``The United States is the world's most powerful economy, the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and therefore it has to be part of the solution,'' said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the talks.
Delegates from more than 150 countries are in the final hours of talks to hammer out a two-year negotiating agenda leading to the signing of a new global treaty to fight global warming to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The conference has made progress in some areas. Delegates agreed on how to manage a pool of money that draws its income from United Nations emissions markets, and will pay grants to developing nations to help them adapt to the effects of global warming such as flooding and drought.
Island Nation
Taavau Teii, deputy prime minister of Tuvalu, said the adaptation fund will benefit his country, a group of nine palm- fringed islands in the Pacific whose terrain lies mostly less than 6 feet (2 meters) above sea-level.
``We listen to the experts, and if they say that Tuvalu will be immersed under the water over the next 20 years, then that is a very critical position for us,'' Teii said.
Negotiators also decided on how to boost funding to aid the transfer of clean-energy technologies such as wind turbines to poor nations from developed countries.
The Global Environment Facility, a Washington-based group that works with the UN and the World Bank to fund development projects, may provide funding for technology transfer initiatives such as buying licenses for low-carbon technologies.
An agreement aimed at rewarding developing nations for preserving forests is being put back on the table after an initial consensus late yesterday as some countries question the exclusion of conservation efforts in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Forest Loss
Reducing emissions from forest loss and damage are a main priority of the discussions because the issue wasn't dealt with in the existing Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012.
De Boer said yesterday that details needed to be hammered out by noon today for the conference to end on time. That deadline passed without agreement.
``Wise ministers will have booked their planes no earlier than Saturday evening,'' de Boer said. ``I'm hearing interventions that judging by their length and technical detail would probably have been more appropriate for the first day of a two-week conference rather than the last day.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, at [email protected] ; Kim Chipman in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, at [email protected] .
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