Climate deal runs straight into trouble with US

NUSA DUA – A hard-fought deal fixing a 2009 deadline for a new treaty to tackle global warming ran straight into trouble yesterday with the United States voicing ‘serious concerns’ over its provisions.

As negotiators headed home after two weeks of intense haggling, the White House complained that the agreement did not do enough to commit major emerging economies such as China and India to big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. It underlined lingering division over how to confront the perils of global warming, which scientists warn will put millions of people at risk of hunger, homelessness and disease by the end of the century if temperatures keep rising at current rates.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who flew to the Indonesian island of Bali for a late appeal for flexibility, praised the agreement as a ‘pivotal first step’ to tackle what he called ‘the defining challenge of our time’.With the deal, the summit of 190 nations launched a process to negotiate a new treaty for when the UN Kyoto Protocol’s pledges on slashing greenhouse gas emissions expire in 2012.Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who reversed his country’s previous stance and ratified Kyoto on his first official act last month, said the world ‘decided to take a bold step into the future’.”But it’s only one step and we’ve got a long, long way to go,” he warned in Brisbane.European nations and environmentalists broadly welcomed the move, although it did not go as far as many had wished by failing to specify any targets for slashing emissions blamed for global warming.An isolated US delegation had backed down during an unplanned 13th day of talks and said it would finally accept the deal, but hours later US President George W Bush’s administration counter-attacked.The White House said any Kyoto successor treaty must acknowledge a nation’s sovereign right to pursue economic growth and energy security.While there were several positive aspects to the Bali deal, it added, the “United States does have serious concerns about other aspects of the decision as we begin the negotiations.”The United States is the only major industrialised nation to reject Kyoto, arguing it is unfair as it does not require fast-growing emerging economies to meet targeted emissions cuts.China is the world’s second largest greenhouse-gas emitter after the United States, and is also outside the Kyoto treaty.The White House said future talks must acknowledge that developed nations could not tackle climate change on their own through targeted emissions cuts, and that emerging economies had to be drawn in.”Empirical studies on emission trends in the major developing economies now conclusively establish that emissions reductions principally by the developed world will be insufficient to confront the global problem effectively.”The agreement came after extraordinary scenes in which UN chief Ban jetted in for a last-ditch appeal, the UN’s exhausted climate chief nearly broke down in tears and tiny Papua New Guinea told the United States to take the lead or “get out of the way.”British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the deal “a vital step forward for the whole world,” while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it “opens the way to real negotiations on effective measures.”Yvo de Boer, head of the UN organisation running the conference, hailed the accord as breaking down “the Berlin Wall of climate change.”Still, analysts warn that while the framework for tackling climate change remains intact, the result of negotiations toward a new treaty depends heavily on the outcome of the US presidential election next November.”The US elections are now the single most important factor in the equation,” said Steve Sawyer, a climate veteran and secretary-general of the Global Wind Energy Council, a Brussels-based lobby for the wind-turbine industry.The drama of Bali will be minor compared to the poker game when talks on a new treaty reach crunch point, said Fernando Tudela, Mexico’s under-secretary for environmental policy.”The mother of all battles will be in 2009,” he cautioned.”This is just a warm-up.”Nampa-AFPIt underlined lingering division over how to confront the perils of global warming, which scientists warn will put millions of people at risk of hunger, homelessness and disease by the end of the century if temperatures keep rising at current rates.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who flew to the Indonesian island of Bali for a late appeal for flexibility, praised the agreement as a ‘pivotal first step’ to tackle what he called ‘the defining challenge of our time’.With the deal, the summit of 190 nations launched a process to negotiate a new treaty for when the UN Kyoto Protocol’s pledges on slashing greenhouse gas emissions expire in 2012.Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who reversed his country’s previous stance and ratified Kyoto on his first official act last month, said the world ‘decided to take a bold step into the future’.”But it’s only one step and we’ve got a long, long way to go,” he warned in Brisbane.European nations and environmentalists broadly welcomed the move, although it did not go as far as many had wished by failing to specify any targets for slashing emissions blamed for global warming.An isolated US delegation had backed down during an unplanned 13th day of talks and said it would finally accept the deal, but hours later US President George W Bush’s administration counter-attacked.The White House said any Kyoto successor treaty must acknowledge a nation’s sovereign right to pursue economic growth and energy security.While there were several positive aspects to the Bali deal, it added, the “United States does have serious concerns about other aspects of the decision as we begin the negotiations.”The United States is the only major industrialised nation to reject Kyoto, arguing it is unfair as it does not require fast-growing emerging economies to meet targeted emissions cuts.China is the world’s second largest greenhouse-gas emitter after the United States, and is also outside the Kyoto treaty.The White House said future talks must acknowledge that developed nations could not tackle climate change on their own through targeted emissions cuts, and that emerging economies had to be drawn in.”Empirical studies on emission trends in the major developing economies now conclusively establish that emissions reductions principally by the developed world will be insufficient to confront the global problem effectively.”The agreement came after extraordinary scenes in which UN chief Ban jetted in for a last-ditch appeal, the UN’s exhausted climate chief nearly broke down in tears and tiny Papua New Guinea told the United States to take the lead or “get out of the way.”British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the deal “a vital step forward for the whole world,” while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it “opens the way to real negotiations on effective measures.”Yvo de Boer, head of the UN organisation running the conference, hailed the accord as breaking down “the Berlin Wall of climate change.”Still, analysts warn that while the framework for tackling climate change remains intact, the result of negotiations toward a new treaty depends heavily on the outcome of the US presidential election next November.”The US elections are now the single most important factor in the equation,” said Steve Sawyer, a climate veteran and secretary-general of the Global Wind Energy Council, a Brussels-based lobby for the wind-turbine industry.The drama of Bali will be minor compared to the poker game when talks on a new treaty reach crunch point, said Fernando Tudela, Mexico’s under-secretary for environmental policy.”The mother of all battles will be in 2009,” he cautioned.”This is just a warm-up.”Nampa-AFP