Old Fights Plague Climate Talks in Cancun

CANCUN, Mexico (Dec. 6) -- Deep, longstanding divisions between industrialized powers and developing nations over how to fight global warming are festering as negotiators today begin their second week of talks on climate change.

The developed world wants emerging economies like China and India to take a greater role in reducing carbon emissions, but those countries insist that rich nations have a "historic responsibility" to reduce greenhouse gases. Developing countries also argue that they will need to continue to depend on fossil fuels to help their economies grow.

"We need three aspects to have a global deal," Martin Khor, head of Swiss-based think tank South Centre, said in assessing the task facing the U.N.-sponsored Climate Change Conference. "We need environment, we need development, and we need equity to clinch the two. Developed countries need to take the lead in mitigation and also in finance and technology."

As the international bickering continues, the latest report of the World Meteorological Organization places 2010 among the three hottest years since weather records began in 1853.

Ministers meeting in Cancun are hoping that new pledges to combat global warming will emerge. "There has been a clear message from some parties, and that would certainly be very good news," said Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, The Associated Press reported.

The deep divisions on carbon mitigation surfaced early in the talks when Japan announced that it would not sign on for another period of commitment under the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only treaty that puts legally binding obligations on industrialized countries.

The first commitment period, which runs from 2008 to 2012, requires rich countries to cut down their carbon emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels. Japan, however, argues that the Kyoto Protocol only covers 27 percent of the world's greenhouse gases and does not include the U.S. and China, which are the world's biggest emitters.

"The mechanism to impose legal obligations only on a limited number of countries is not fair. We want to see all major emitters participate in our joint efforts," said Mitsuo Sakaba, a senior negotiator for Japan.

Noting that India's position on the Kyoto Protocol was "non-negotiable," the country's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, described the treaty as the "make or break" issue at the conference and indicated that Japan was supported by Russia, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

Ramesh also pointed out that Japan's main problem was China forging ahead with its development agenda without any international obligations to fight global warming. Both India and China have agreed to carry out voluntary domestic actions to cut carbon missions, but the method of reporting these actions to the international community is under contention.

The talks in Cancun are a more low-key affair than the mega-event last year in Copenhagen, where more than 150 heads of state gathered to try to seal the deal on a new climate treaty. Instead, the Copenhagen Accord, prepared by the U.S. and the BRIC nations (Brazil, India, China and South Africa), was slammed by several nations that felt left out. The accord called for a two-degrees-Celsius limit in global temperature rise, along with $100 billion in long-term financing to help developing countries and $30 billion immediately to the poorest and most vulnerable countries.

Developed countries have been criticized for not giving the money needed by poor countries to adapt to climate change restrictions that are already affecting their livelihoods and economy.

Wary of the Copenhagen fallout, the bar had been set low for the present talks, with delegates focusing on less contentious aspects like saving forests and providing technology to developing countries to facilitate "clean" development.

The U.S. has also received flak for its timid response to the climate crisis, especially since no domestic climate legislation is expected in 2011. So far, the U.S. has indicated that it will reduce carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

"We are not walking away in any way, shape or form from the submissions we made last year," said Todd Stern, U.S. special envoy on climate change.

"U.S. has articulated that it will block any forward progress on a global climate fund if its demands on mitigation and transparency in developing countries are not met," said Kate Horner, a policy analyst at Friends of the Earth. She said that Stern's call for a "legally symmetrical" solution with the same obligations binding on all parties "exerts a great deal of pressure on the hosts of the government to accommodate the U.S. position which seems to be so intransigent."

Non-government organizations and scientists have said that the carbon reduction and deadlines being negotiated so far are not rooted in science, and when the governments finally leave the negotiating table, it may be too late.

"They are delays that clearly imply a higher cost," said R.K. Pachauri, the U.N.'s top scientist. "What's important is for the negotiators to understand that every day's delay does have implications."