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DURBAN,
South Africa (AP) — Negotiators from Europe, tiny islands threatened by
rising oceans and the world's poorest countries sought to keep alive
the only treaty governing global warming and move to the next stage,
struggling against an unlikely alliance of the United States, China and
India.
Bleary-eyed delegates worked through the night and all day
Friday, and the two-week U.N. conference stretched past the hour it was
supposed to end, with the negotiators looking ahead to a second and
final night of meetings expected to last until dawn Saturday.
Delegates
from the 194-party conference are trying to map out the pathway toward
limiting global emissions of greenhouse gases for the rest of this
decade, and then how to continue beyond 2020.
Scientists say that
unless those emissions — chiefly carbon dioxide from power generation
and industry — level out and reverse within a few years, the Earth will
be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead
to ever greater climate catastrophes.
The European Union said
after a negotiating session of 26 key ministers that lasted beyond 4
a.m. Friday that support was growing for its plan to negotiate a new
accord for a post-2020 world.
But the optimism faded as the day wore on and the three holdouts held firm.
More
than 120 climate-vulnerable countries signed on to the EU vision
calling for all countries to be held accountable for their carbon
emissions in the future, not just the industrial countries. The U.S.,
China and India, all for slightly different reasons, refused.
European
climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she was encouraged by
progress overnight, but warned that if the three largest polluters stand
fast, "I don't think that there will be a deal in Durban."
"It's a
strange world when the U.S. is aligning with China and India to block
action on global warming," said Jake Schmidt of the New York-based
Natural Resources Defense Council.
A noisy demonstration of dozens
of chanting, singing and horn-blowing protesters — all activists
accredited to attend the conference — tried to disrupt a plenary meeting
but were blocked by a phalanx of blue-shirted U.N. guards.
Ten
protesters, including Greenpeace director Kumi Naidoo, were barred from
entering the building for the rest of the conference.
"Leaders
have been sleepwalking us into a crisis of epic proportions," Naidoo
told The Associated Press. The protest was meant to "inject some urgency
into the process."
It was the latest and largest protest at the
conference this week. An American college student and six Canadians had
their credentials withdrawn after heckling speakers from their countries
in the plenary hall.
Under discussion in the back rooms was an
extension of binding pledges by the European Union and a few other
industrial countries to cut carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
Those commitments expire next year.
The EU, the primary bloc bound
by commitments under the 1997 protocol, conditioned an extension on
starting new talks on an accord to replace Kyoto, at the latest by 2020.
It insists the new agreement equally oblige all countries to abide by
their emission targets.
Developing countries were adamant that the
Kyoto commitments continue since it is the only agreement that compels
any nation to reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is
deeply flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting
developing countries. It was for that reason the United States never
ratified it.
After adjourning after 4 a.m. Friday, conference
president Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who is South Africa's foreign
minister, drafted a one-page compromise on the key question of the legal
form of a post-2020 regime. The wording would imply how tightly
countries would be held accountable for their emissions.
The draft called for launching a negotiating process "to develop a legal framework applicable to all" after 2020.
But the language proved too soft for the Europeans, and Nkoana-Mashabane was drafting a new formula.
Both
China and the U.S. have said publicly they would be amenable to the EU
proposal to negotiate a post-2020 agreement, but each attached tough
conditions.
The United States is concerned about conceding any
competitive business advantage to China. Beijing is resisting any
suggestion to change its status as a developing country, saying it still
has hundreds of millions of impoverished people. India, which lags
behind China in development even though its economy also is expanding
rapidly, was taking "a relatively tough stand here," Hedegaard said.
Negotiators
said India and the U.S. softened their positions during the day, but
that China has refused to affirm its future commitments will be
regulated under the foreseen international regime.
The U.S., where
climate change is a delicate issue for the administration of President
Barack Obama, says it does not want to agree that it will accept binding
commitments as part of a deal that has not yet been negotiated. The
content of the deal is more important than its legal standing, U.S.
envoy Todd Stern has told reporters.
Under Kyoto, rich countries are legally bound to reduce carbon emissions while developing countries take voluntary actions.
Hedegaard
said the EU's proposal was intended to dismantle the 20th century
division of the world into camps of rich and poor, and to make
adjustments that reflect the realities of the 21st century balance of
economic power — and emissions.
Three Kyoto countries — Japan,
Canada and Russia — already have announced that they will not extend
their reduction commitments for another period because of Kyoto's
imbalances.
If the EU fulfills its threat against renewing its
pledges, that would not mean it would halt actions to reduce emissions.
The 27-nation union already has legislated a requirement to lower
emissions to 20 percent below their 1990 levels by 2020, and has adopted
energy efficiency targets and a plan for renewable energy that will
proceed regardless of its international obligations.
Enlarge PhotoProtesters shout out as they demonstrate inside the building were the climate change …
Enlarge PhotoProtesters shout out as they demonstrate inside the building were the climate change …
DURBAN,
South Africa (AP) — Negotiators from Europe, tiny islands threatened by
rising oceans and the world's poorest countries sought to keep alive
the only treaty governing global warming and move to the next stage,
struggling against an unlikely alliance of the United States, China and
India.
Bleary-eyed delegates worked through the night and all day
Friday, and the two-week U.N. conference stretched past the hour it was
supposed to end, with the negotiators looking ahead to a second and
final night of meetings expected to last until dawn Saturday.
Delegates
from the 194-party conference are trying to map out the pathway toward
limiting global emissions of greenhouse gases for the rest of this
decade, and then how to continue beyond 2020.
Scientists say that
unless those emissions — chiefly carbon dioxide from power generation
and industry — level out and reverse within a few years, the Earth will
be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead
to ever greater climate catastrophes.
The European Union said
after a negotiating session of 26 key ministers that lasted beyond 4
a.m. Friday that support was growing for its plan to negotiate a new
accord for a post-2020 world.
But the optimism faded as the day wore on and the three holdouts held firm.
More
than 120 climate-vulnerable countries signed on to the EU vision
calling for all countries to be held accountable for their carbon
emissions in the future, not just the industrial countries. The U.S.,
China and India, all for slightly different reasons, refused.
European
climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she was encouraged by
progress overnight, but warned that if the three largest polluters stand
fast, "I don't think that there will be a deal in Durban."
"It's a
strange world when the U.S. is aligning with China and India to block
action on global warming," said Jake Schmidt of the New York-based
Natural Resources Defense Council.
A noisy demonstration of dozens
of chanting, singing and horn-blowing protesters — all activists
accredited to attend the conference — tried to disrupt a plenary meeting
but were blocked by a phalanx of blue-shirted U.N. guards.
Ten
protesters, including Greenpeace director Kumi Naidoo, were barred from
entering the building for the rest of the conference.
"Leaders
have been sleepwalking us into a crisis of epic proportions," Naidoo
told The Associated Press. The protest was meant to "inject some urgency
into the process."
It was the latest and largest protest at the
conference this week. An American college student and six Canadians had
their credentials withdrawn after heckling speakers from their countries
in the plenary hall.
Under discussion in the back rooms was an
extension of binding pledges by the European Union and a few other
industrial countries to cut carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
Those commitments expire next year.
The EU, the primary bloc bound
by commitments under the 1997 protocol, conditioned an extension on
starting new talks on an accord to replace Kyoto, at the latest by 2020.
It insists the new agreement equally oblige all countries to abide by
their emission targets.
Developing countries were adamant that the
Kyoto commitments continue since it is the only agreement that compels
any nation to reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is
deeply flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting
developing countries. It was for that reason the United States never
ratified it.
After adjourning after 4 a.m. Friday, conference
president Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who is South Africa's foreign
minister, drafted a one-page compromise on the key question of the legal
form of a post-2020 regime. The wording would imply how tightly
countries would be held accountable for their emissions.
The draft called for launching a negotiating process "to develop a legal framework applicable to all" after 2020.
But the language proved too soft for the Europeans, and Nkoana-Mashabane was drafting a new formula.
Both
China and the U.S. have said publicly they would be amenable to the EU
proposal to negotiate a post-2020 agreement, but each attached tough
conditions.
The United States is concerned about conceding any
competitive business advantage to China. Beijing is resisting any
suggestion to change its status as a developing country, saying it still
has hundreds of millions of impoverished people. India, which lags
behind China in development even though its economy also is expanding
rapidly, was taking "a relatively tough stand here," Hedegaard said.
Negotiators
said India and the U.S. softened their positions during the day, but
that China has refused to affirm its future commitments will be
regulated under the foreseen international regime.
The U.S., where
climate change is a delicate issue for the administration of President
Barack Obama, says it does not want to agree that it will accept binding
commitments as part of a deal that has not yet been negotiated. The
content of the deal is more important than its legal standing, U.S.
envoy Todd Stern has told reporters.
Under Kyoto, rich countries are legally bound to reduce carbon emissions while developing countries take voluntary actions.
Hedegaard
said the EU's proposal was intended to dismantle the 20th century
division of the world into camps of rich and poor, and to make
adjustments that reflect the realities of the 21st century balance of
economic power — and emissions.
Three Kyoto countries — Japan,
Canada and Russia — already have announced that they will not extend
their reduction commitments for another period because of Kyoto's
imbalances.
If the EU fulfills its threat against renewing its
pledges, that would not mean it would halt actions to reduce emissions.
The 27-nation union already has legislated a requirement to lower
emissions to 20 percent below their 1990 levels by 2020, and has adopted
energy efficiency targets and a plan for renewable energy that will
proceed regardless of its international obligations.