China, India block UN climate deal

China, India block UN climate deal
Bali Island, Indonesia - India and China blocked a last minute deal at the world climate conference in Bali on Saturday, derailing an attempt to reach an agreement for a pact to fight global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.


Negotiators from more than 180 countries were trying to iron out a compromise on whether guidelines for negotiations to create a post-2012 global climate agreement by the end of 2009 should mention scientific evidence of the need for emissions cuts in the range of 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

India and China had voiced objections to how developing countries should reduce their carbon emissions. India wanted countries to set their own targets, allowing it to limit the impact of the regulations on its economy.

China saw the dispute as an opening for further discussions.

The controversy centres on whether developing country emissions reduction measures should be called "actions" or "contributions," and their linkage to technology and financing.

The conference was scheduled to end Friday, but wrangling over targets for cutting world greenhouse emissions continued until well into the night without agreement.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to return to the conference on an unscheduled visit to help end the deadlock.

While the European Union, supported by most developing nations, was aggressively pushing for the 25 to 40 per cent target range to be included in the text, it was being opposed by the US, Canada, Japan and Australia, which say any mention of numbers will prejudge the negotiations.

In an attempt to break the deadlock, the conference president, Indonesians Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, proposed revised language dropping the numbers but still reaffirming that emissions should be reduced at least by half by 2050.

Witoelar's proposal provided a basis for a potential compromise, producing a relatively vague mandate for two years of negotiations. As worded, his draft Bali Road Map did not guarantee any level of binding commitment by any nation.

The draft was to instruct negotiators to consider incentives and other means to encourage less developed nations to curb carbon emissions on a voluntary basis.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer had told reporters late Friday that the main issues left on the table was how to describe the climate change mitigation responsibilities of developed and developing countries, and how to reference the scientific prognosis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) and its implications for future actions and commitments by developed nations.

Other questions to be resolved include the deadline date of 2009 and the name and status of the body that will be created to conduct negotiations over the next two years, he said.

The Kyoto Protocol, which requires 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent below 1990 levels, is to end in 2012. The United States is the only rich nation which has not ratified the protocol.//DPA