Climate talks end with rich-poor rift wide open

BANGKOK (AFP) - Two weeks of crucial UN climate talks concluded Friday after exposing huge rifts between rich and poor nations, just weeks ahead of the deadline for sealing a planet-saving global deal.
Only five negotiating days remain, in November, before 192 nations converge for a critical December showdown in Copenhagen, where they have pledged to conclude a treaty to tackle global warming.
Without rapid action, scientists say, the world faces catastrophe in the form of drought, flooding, famine and forced migration.
My feeling is that the ball, immediately, is in the developed country court to make it clearer what they are looking for, said Maltas Michael Cutajar, co-chair of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks. A few minutes later at a separate Press conference, US negotiator Jonathan Pershing countered: I think the ball is in the court of all countries.
He highlighted a key demand from rich countries that emerging giants such as China, India and Brazil commit to binding actions on climate.
We are at a critical stage, with major issues unresolved, said Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre, a Geneva-based think-tank aligned with developing countries.
If there is no improvement in the divisions, the prospects are certainly not bright for an outcome in Copenhagen that is ambitious environmentally, and equitable from a social point of view, he said.
At the end of the day, if you dont have ambitious (emissions) targets from rich nations, and if you dont have significant finance on the table, the whole thing falls apart, said Yvo de Boer, the UNs top climate official.
But even as Bangkok inched from procedure to substance, negotiators on both sides of the issues agreed the experts dialogue will remain blocked without strong input from world leaders between now and December.
This is not the only game in town, said de Boer, referring to the UNFCCC, of which he is executive secretary.
Expectations are high for a second world leaders summit on climate before Copenhagen, following a September gathering at the UN in New York, but no dates have been announced.
De Boer said he hoped the awarding of the Nobel Peace prize to US President Barack Obama would be an encouragement for him to bring a strong commitment to Copenhagen.
The looming question of how the US will fit into any new agreement has dominated the Bangkok meeting, with Pershing making clear that Washington will never join the Kyoto Protocol.
Kyoto legally obliges 37 industrialised countries to cut greenhouse gas output by a total of more than five per cent before 2012 compared to 1990 levels.
This raises the issue of whether to scrap Kyoto and fold some of its provisions into a new accord, or to expand its provisions for another five or seven years while cutting a separate deal for the US.
A single instrument is more coherent, and for that reason is preferable, said Elliot Diringer, vice-president of the Washington-based Pew Centre on Global Climate Change.
But developing nations expressed deep alarm at what they saw as a shift away from Kyoto towards a US proposal for a bottom-up approach, in which countries submit national plans to outside verification.
The train to Copenhagen is in imminent peril. Please dont destroy the Kyoto Protocol track, Chinas top climate negotiator Su Wei pleaded in the closing plenary session. The European Union, which was the most loyal to the protocol up to now, seems to be wavering. If they jump ship, Kyoto will be an empty shell, said Khor.
Green groups lamented the lack of progress in Bangkok, and called on rich-nation leaders not to wait until the eleventh hour to act.
If the industrialised countries dont put their cards on the table regarding finance, there isnt going to be a card game in Copenhagen, said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.