UN signals delay in climate change treaty

Tuesday, 27 October 2009 13:14

Just weeks before the international conference on climate change, the United Nations signals it is scaling back expectations of reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warning.

Janos Pasztor, director of the secretary-general's Climate Change Support Team, said Monday "it's hard to say how far the conference will be able to go" because the US Congress has not agreed on a climate bill, and industrialized nations have not agreed on targets to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions or funding to help developing countries limit their discharges.

Pasztor told a news conference "there is tremendous activity by governments in capitals and internationally to shape the outcome" of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, which "is a good development" because political leadership is essential to make a deal.

But he indicated that Copenhagen most likely won't produce a treaty, but instead will push governments as far as they can go on the content of an agreement.

Pasztor stressed that there is still a final negotiating session in Barcelona, Spain, from Nov. 2-6 that will be followed by two more weeks of work in Copenhagen.

The secretary-general is in close contact with the Danish prime minister and might go to the meeting of Asian and Pacific leaders in Singapore on Nov. 14-15 — which President Barack Obama plans to attend — to keep pressing for a global accord in Copenhagen, Pasztor said.

Pasztor said a US climate bill is very important because without one, US negotiators in Copenhagen can't negotiate on targets for emissions reductions.

He said two key unresolved issues are agreement on emission reduction targets for industrialized countries and how to finance actions by developing countries to limit their emissions growth and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Developed countries want to provide money for specific actions to curb emissions — but developing countries say the actions depend on how much money they're going to get, Pasztor said, and that still hasn't been decided.

Source: www.Cop15.dk