Battle for rival visions at climate summit
BALI, Indonesia (CNN) — Negotiations at a U.N. climate change summit extended into Saturday as delegates tried to agree on future goals for cutting greenhouse gases.
The United States and European Union were struggling to resolve an impasse over emission cuts, while the U.S. also wants Asian powerhouses China and India to be treated the same as rich, developed countries.
The Europeans want to include specific goals for emission cuts by 2020, while the U.S. wants to leave specific cuts for future negotiations.
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said: They don’t have the same vision.
Tony Juniper, of Friends of the Earth, said: The U.S., in particular, is behaving like passengers in first class on a jumbo jet who believe that a catastrophe in economy class will not effect them.
Indonesia put forward a U.S.-Europe compromise, being considered by both sides, which requires significant emissions cuts but over a longer period than the Europeans have suggested.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is on his way to Bali to either announce a successful deal or try to break the deadlock.
The goal of the summit in Bali, Indonesia, is to draft a framework for future negotiations, and to continue the process started 10 years ago with the Kyoto Protocol.
Another area of debate was whether China and India should be required to address their rapidly rising emissions.
The United States insists any agreement emerging from the conference must apply to the Asian economic powerhouses. The lack of any binding targets for China and India was Washington’s main problem with the Kyoto Protocol.
Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said he supported the Indonesian plan as long as delegates promised to agree on specific numbers within a short period of time. Watch Nobel Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri describe what is at stake
We’ll have to specify that these numbers will have to be settled by so-and-so date, Pachauri told CNN at the conference.
I think there has to be something definite by which we’re able to specify what needs to be done to reduce emissions of these gases.
As protesters outside the conference hall demand delegates reach a swift agreement, those inside expressed hope the United States and EU could break their deadlock.
What I sense very strongly is that everyone is really working very hard towards a result and that nobody wants to see this process fail, said Yvo de Boer, the U.N. climate change chief.
Certainly nobody wants to be the country that caused the failure of this process.
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he was sure the parties would reach a deal.
The EU wants an agreement to require developed countries to cut their emissions by 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020. The United States opposes those targets, along with Japan and Canada.
The Indonesian plan mentions halving the emissions by 2050 and does not mention targets for 2020.
Without specifics, however, some believe the final agreement would amount to failure.
Let me underline once again that the Bali road map must have a clear destination, said Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.
Pachauri said such a stance would ignore the other progress being made at the conference. He said simply having a strong statement paving the way for future action would suffice.
I wouldn’t term that a failure at all, Pachauri said.
I think what would be a failure is not to provide a strong road map by which the world can move on, and I think that road map has to be specified with or without numbers. If we can come up with numbers, that’s certainly substantial progress, and I hope that happens.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change passed the Kyoto Protocol 10 years ago, with the goal of limiting greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
While 175 parties — including the European Union — ratified it, the United States has not.
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