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2009-08-11 09:52:51
By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Bonn
Time is running short to agree a new treaty on global warming amid deep
divisions over key issues, according to the UN's top climate official.
Speaking at the start of the latest round of UN discussions, Yvo de Boer said
the political signals were positive, but progress still too slow.
About 1,000 officials are meeting in Bonn for a week of informal talks.
The aim is to clear the way for the adoption of a new UN climate treaty in
Copenhagen in December.
"We've got a 200-plus-page text riddled with square brackets (where issues are
unresolved)," Mr de Boer told BBC News. "And it worries me to think how on
earth we're going to whittle that down to meaningful language with just five
weeks of negotiating time left."
Time out
Facing delegates is a large digital clock counting down the days to the start
of the Copenhagen summit - 119 as of today.
But Mr de Boer warned: "You're looking at hugely divergent interests, very
little time remaining, a complicated document on the table and still a lot of
progress to be made on some very important issues like finance."
One of the toughest disputes is over which countries should commit to reducing
their levels of greenhouse gases.
It's just an outrage that countries cannot live up to their responsibilities
Bernaditas de Castro-Mueller, senior G77 co-ordinator
The industrialised nations say that big polluters in the developing world,
notably China and India, must be included in any treaty commitments.
The head of the US delegation here, Jonathan Pershing, said that having those
two countries included was "absolutely part of the deal".
"We see success in Copenhagen as in no small measure a function of what all
these major players do," he told BBC News. "Ourselves, Europe, China, India,
Japan - it has to be the major emitters. If we think of a group of about 15
countries, they comprise on the order of 75% of global emissions.
"We can't solve this without them; you need them all and they all have to move
immediately."
Different pace
But developing countries point out that most of the greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere came from the industrialised world; whereas societies such as India
remain desperately poor.
"[India] is a country where half the rural population does not have a light
bulb in its home or a gas ring," said Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, the
senior Indian negotiator here.
"So to describe this country as a large emitter is absurd - there's no other
word for it."
Another source of tension is over finance - the help the developing world says
is needed to cope with the effects of climate change.
Bernaditas de Castro-Mueller of the Philippines is a senior co-ordinator for
the G77 group of developing countries.
She told me that the nations that had caused the most greenhouse gases had an
obligation to help those suffering from them.
"It's just an outrage that countries cannot live up to their responsibilities.
We're all parties to this convention, including the developed countries," she
said.
This week's talks are billed as informal in an effort to foster some
breakthroughs. They are not likely to provide answers, but may signal whether a
treaty is achievable by December's deadline.