The pace of negotiations for an international agreement on climate after 2012 quickened Tuesday. Security was tighter, lines were long and the crowds were thicker as ministers and a handful of presidents are starting to arrive for Wednesday's "High Level Segment" of the conference.
However, the United States and European Union (EU) were still pointing fingers at each other for blocking the marathon negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, which opened on December 3. The argument between the two major players over greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission targets even prompted UNFCCC head to step in on Tuesday to set an arbitral tone over the debate.
"We have seen some actors try to reduce expectations and ambitions for the Bali conference from the very outset," said European Parliament (EP) Vice-President and delegation chair Alejo Vidal-Quadras here on Tuesday.
"It is our conviction, however, that a clear, ambitious commitment must be reached at Bali: not so much as an international treaty, but a clear plan for achieving a final agreement by 2009, "he said. To that end, "what we need more than simply a mandate is a range of emission reduction goals for all industrialized countries".
As Vidal-Quadras put it, "a roadmap without details, landmarks, as well as a clear destination is no roadmap at all." The final text, therefore, "should be clear about the aims that the Bali process wants to achieve and to make plain that commitments should be binding. Ministers should not walk out of this conference without anything short of this."
Also, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Tuesday that "The EU set a target of 30 percent (by 2020) provided that other developed countries come along, or even more than 30 percent if it is necessary."
The EU has proposed rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020.
But the EU's proposal was rejected by the United States delegates to the conference on the grounds that it would "prejudge the outcome of negotiations" and slow down its economic growth.
A draft text of the conference, written by delegates from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa as an unofficial guide for delegates from over 180 countries at the Dec. 3-14 U.N. climate talks, said developed nations should reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in a range of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of a new pact preventing the worst impacts of climate change.
The developing countries want the industrialized countries to take bigger responsibilities in cutting greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change, while some developed nations want to bind all nations to greenhouse gas curbs.
At his daily press briefing, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Mr. de Boer said: "25 percent-40 percent by 2020 is an emission reduction range, it's not a target, and it's something that governments said earlier this year they should be guided by in the context of the negotiations."
"Contrary to some reports, these figures do not prejudge the outcome of the negotiations."
Mr. de Boer said "this range does not represent concrete emission reduction targets for industrialized countries and this conference will not produce an agreement on specific targets per country," pointing out that this was not what it had set out to do. What it did aim to achieve, he explained, was to set the wheels in motion in terms of launching a process going into the future.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that a reduction in greenhouse gases in the range of 25-40 percent by 2020 is necessary in order to keep the earth's temperature from rising 2 degrees Celsius.
Source: Xinhua
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