Climate talks pace angers developing nations

Wed Apr 8, 2009 4:53pm BST


* Climate meeting to launch formal negotiation of pact

* Developing countries angered that no rich nation target

* U.S. engagement was the high point of Bonn talks



(Adds quote on launch of negotiations from June)

By Gerard Wynn

BONN, Germany, April 8 (Reuters) - Developing nations said on Wednesday they were angry that 11 days of U.N. climate change talks failed to set a target for cuts in gas emissions by industrialised countries, as many had hoped.

The 175-nation talks, which close in Bonn on Wednesday, were the latest in a series of meetings meant to forge a deal in Copenhagen in December to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol.

The talks looked certain to lead to full negotiations on the text of a climate pact -- a procedural outcome disappointing to developing countries which will have to wait until June or later for long-awaited commitments from rich countries.

"We're very disappointed at this turn of events," China's climate ambassador, Yu Qingtai, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We came to Bonn this time hoping that we'll finally focus on the central mandate of this working group," he said, referring to the group looking at the ranges of future cuts by developed nations. "There is a very consistent lack of interest to engage," he added.

Developing countries had hoped that the Bonn meeting would set emission reduction targets for the group of industrialised nations as a whole.

But rich countries preferred to await the outcome of wider debate, for example on how far they can offset their emissions and how to count the effect of planting trees.

The meeting was likely to agree to launch negotiations on a legal text for a new pact. The next gathering in June marks a legal deadline to start formal negotiations.

"By then a negotiating text will be on the table and we will be firmly into the final sprint for conclusion in Copenhagen," said U.N. climate change chief Yvo de Boer.



DEBUT

Delegations at the Bonn meeting had been cagey, with their governments avoiding concrete statements -- on how far to limit global warming, for example -- before full negotiations start.

"It's been a tactical two weeks," said Michael Zammit Cutajar, a Maltese official who chairs a group looking at widening climate action to include all countries.

"In general on the whole question of numbers people are very wary because ... that's where the politics comes in," he added.

The pace of the progress in Bonn also disappointed environmentalists and green groups.

"The level of ambition coming from all countries is far off that required to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit)," said William Hare of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, referring to the level of warming seen by the European Union as a trigger for "dangerous" change.

Bonn delegates drew comfort from the new U.S. administration's debut in the U.N. climate process, which brought signs of renewed U.S. commitment.

U.S. President Barack Obama used his recent visit to Europe to promise U.S. leadership on climate change, contrasting with the tone of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.

"It was great that the United States was really listening with an open heart," said Hans Verolme of the Washington-based National Wildlife Federation.

A summit of 16 "major economies" in Washington on April 27 and 28, parallel to the U.N. process, buoyed hopes for accelerated climate negotiations and success in Copenhagen.

"If that group can provide further clarity on ... a greater degree of ambition in limiting emissions, that would be very useful," said de Boer.

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, Editing by Jonathan Wright)

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