Emissions cap for poor unlikely at Bali talks

By Gerard Wynn

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Chances that developing nations such as China would agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions receded on Friday as U.N. talks inched forward in seeking a new world pact by 2009 to fight global warming.

"Nothing's been ruled out," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat at the December 3-14 talks among 190 nations in a luxury beach resort in Bali, Indonesia.

"Binding commitments for developing countries are not off the table but are crawling towards the edge," he said of the possibility that developing nations would agree to join many rich nations in capping greenhouse gas emissions.

The negotiations aim to agree a "roadmap" to work out a broader, more ambitious climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol by 2009, spurred by U.N. reports warning of ever more heatwaves, droughts, and rising seas.

Delegates must find words equally palatable to rich countries such as the United States and Japan, which want developing nations to fight climate change harder, and the likes of China and India, which want to be paid to take such effort.

"The negotiations on the future are going very well," de Boer added of the overall talks on a new global pact.

De Boer said most rich nations seemed to agree it was too early to expect developing nations to cap emissions. China's emissions of greenhouse gases per capita, for instance, are about 4 tons against 20 tons per American.

Many developing countries say they will at most try to brake the rise of their emissions but want incentives such as clean technology and aid. About a dozen trade ministers will meet in Bali at the weekend and finance ministers on Monday.