Ministers Fail to Reach Agreement at U.N. Climate Talks |
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Environment ministers meeting Thursday at the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change failed to reach agreement on the issue of adopting a rule book to enforce the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
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Environment ministers meeting Thursday at the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change failed to reach agreement on the issue of adopting a rule book to enforce the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Discussions to resolve the dispute largely between Japan and the European Union on conditions to peg the landmark treaty on emissions cuts are likely to continue until the final COP7 session Friday, according to Japanese government sources.
Japan's Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi met separately with EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom and Olivier Deleuze, Belgian state secretary for energy and sustainable development and head of the EU delegation, on Thursday but failed to bridge the gap between their positions.
Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries, fearing a drop in oil consumption with progress made in adopting global warming strategies, are asking industrial nations to ensure that compensatory measures will be put in place. The issue is also proving to be a sticking point in discussions at the conference.
Another contentious issue is Russia's demand that it be allocated a total of 33 million tons of carbon to be soaked up by forests, nearly twice as much as it was allocated during the previous climate talks in Bonn in July.
Russia has objected to the cap on the so-called carbon sinks -- carbon dioxide absorption by forests to offset emissions -- while developing nations led by Iran are protesting such a measure being applied to Russia alone.
The ministerial segment of the talks began on Wednesday, with environment ministers from around the world aiming to adopt the rules to operate the Kyoto Protocol as a legal document, and to help the pact come into force next year as agreed to in previous negotiations.
The Kyoto Protocol, concluded in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, requires industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by an average of 5.2% between 2008 and 2012.
The pact will come into force only after being ratified by 55 countries, representing 55% of the industrialized countries' CO2 emissions in 1990.
U.S. President George W. Bush has indicated that the United States would not ratify the treaty, which he described as ''fatally flawed.''
Even without the U.S., the accord could be brought into effect with ratification by other industrialized countries, such as Japan, Russia and European nations.
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