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At summit, doubts grow on reaching climate deal

EU 'very worried' on climate negotiations
The European Union on Thursday voiced deep concern about climate change negotiations, warning they were heading in the wrong direction with weeks to go before the make-or-break Copenhagen conference. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the current head of the EU, came to the US city of Pittsburgh for a 20-nation economic summit after top-level talks at the United Nations on climate change. "We are both very worried about the situation," Reinfeldt said at a joint news conference with European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso. "When it comes to the negotiations, they are in fact slowing down; they are not going in the right direction," Reinfeldt said. "We are very worried that we need to speed up the negotiations." Little more than two months remain until the conference in Copenhagen, which is meant to approve the framework of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark treaty that required cuts in emissions blamed for global warming. The European Union and Japan have been the leading champions of the Kyoto Protocol, which made no requirements on developing nations to cut carbon emissions. But rich nations including the United States are united in insisting that the next treaty also require action by emerging economies. Chinese President Hu Jintao told Tuesday's climate summit that the world's biggest developing nation was prepared to slow down the growth of its carbon emissions as it develops, but he did not set a figure.
by Staff Writers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (AFP) Sept 24, 2009
European leaders voiced growing doubts Thursday on whether the world will meet a December deadline for a new climate deal as a summit here looked set to take up global warming in generalities.

Twenty leaders who represent 90 percent of the global economy were holding two days of talks in the eastern US city of Pittsburgh, itself billed as a model of transition from decaying steel town to a green technology hub.

The summit opened two days after a high-powered climate meet at the United Nations, where Japan and China offered new pledges on how to save the world from rising temperatures predicted to threaten entire species if unchecked.

But with just a little more than two months before a conference in Copenhagen -- designated two years ago as the venue to seal the successor to the landmark Kyoto Protocol -- pessimism was growing.

"When it comes to the negotiations, they are in fact slowing down; they are not going in the right direction," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the current head of the European Union.

"We are very worried that we need to speed up the negotiations," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also sounded a sour note.

"There has been progress, in particular from the Chinese side, from the Japanese side now, and the UN meeting with (UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon," Merkel told reporters in Berlin before heading to Pittsburgh.

"But I have to say that when I consider what still has to be achieved before Copenhagen, we cannot be happy," she said.

World leaders are expected to discuss climate change in Pittsburgh but few expected any breakthrough. Climate negotiators, however, will meet next week in Bangkok in a new effort to make progress before Copenhagen.

The Kyoto Protocol's obligations for rich nations to cut emissions blamed for global warming expire at the end of 2012.

President Barack Obama sharply reversed the US line on global warming after assuming the White House in January by pledging to take strong action, although Congress has yet to finalize legislation on restricting emissions.

Despite their divisions over the Kyoto Protocol, developed nations are united in insisting that emerging economies must make commitments under the next treaty.

Chinese President Hu Jintao told the UN summit that the emerging power would reduce the intensity of its carbon emissions as its economy keeps growing but offered no figure.

Japan's new left-leaning prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged to ramp up the emission-cutting commitment of the world's second largest economy, in one of the few major recent gestures on climate change by developed nations.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who ratified the Kyoto Protocol as his first act in office in 2007, said that developed and developing nations all favored a new treaty but needed to find a "grand bargin" to seal the deal.

Rudd, speaking to students at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, said that the Group of 20 should see a climate deal as a way toward a sustainable growth in the world economy.

"Beyond avoiding another crisis, our parallel challenge is how to generate the economic growth and the jobs of the future given that the debt-driven consumption model of the past is unlikely to be trusted anymore," he said.

A climate deal could "turn the threat of climate change into a great transformational economic opportunity," he said.

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China keeps room to manoeuvre on climate change: observers
Beijing (AFP) Sept 23, 2009
Chinese President Hu Jintao offered few details in his UN speech on climate change, but the lack of specifics could just mean he wants to keep some room for manoeuvre, observers said Wednesday. On Tuesday, Hu told the UN General Assembly in New York that China would curb the growth of its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a "notable margin" by 2020 from their 2005 level, but did ... read more







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