UN talks on Climate Change Stall--Is the US to Blame?

UN hosted talks about climate change held in Bonn, Germany bogged down over the issue of US involvement in a climate change policy.

The issue at hand is the United States refusal to sign-off on the Kyoto Pact that is set to expire in 2012. Diplomats fear that without the United States agreeing to this pact, further discussions on global warming are fruitless.

The US is concerned the Kyoto Pact only targets the rich countries, and by doing this the emerging countries will be allowed to pollute as much as they want.

The United States and Japan, despite UN alarmists ringing warning bells, did not see much hope for launching more serious talks about extending the Kyoto Pact at the upcoming UN meeting to be held this December in Bali.

Japan's chief climate negotiator, Mutsuyoshi Nishimura said all emitters of carbon, including China and India, need to be involved in these talks, and not just the rich countries like the United States and Japan. Mr. Nishimura said his expectations of extending the Kyoto Pact in Bali are extremely low.

The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocol and ruled out talks in Bali to change the pact's parent treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, a necessary step to extend Kyoto.

"Certainly it would be premature," chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters.

Jamil Ahmad, coordinator for the G77 group which represents 132 developing countries, said developing countries should not be the ones targeted in the next Kyoto agreement for 2013.

"After the second commitment period future possibilities can be discussed, it's too far ahead to imagine a scenario for discussion," he told Reuters.

China, the world's second biggest carbon emitter, said developing countries have been trying to cut their carbon emissions, but further help is needed. Guoshun Sun, China's head of delegation, said developing countries need financial and technological assistance, along with resources, from all the developed countries in helping to curb carbon emissions in their countries.

Yvo de Boer, the UN's head of climate change, did acknowledge some "sticky points" in the debate on climate change, but Yvo went on to say it was a good sign to see the willingness of Brazil and South Africa discussing how the developing countries can shoulder some the the burden of committing to a climate change pact.

Germany is set to hold a G8 economic summit this June where a discussion on global warming is set to highlight this meeting of the world's biggest economic countries.

Germany's chief climate negotiator Nicole Wilke said, she hopes the change in policy by Brazil and South Africa will open the door for more serious talks about extending the Kyoto Pact beyond 2012. Ms. Wilke said Chancellor Merkel is hoping the G8 summit will pave the way for even more productive talks at the Bali meeting later in the year.

Proponents of climate change are worried about what will happen if he Kyoto treaty is allowed to expire without an extension being given to this pact. Nations have to come to an agreement and then parliamentary backing has to be won in a process that usually takes four years.

An agreement reached in Bonn, Germany, still needs to be signed-off at the Bali meetings that would create a fund to help most vulnerable countries. This agreement would also call for a group to give technology aid to countries that need such assistance.

"Everybody knows there's a higher public expectation on policymakers," said the head of the European Commission's delegation, Artur Runge-Metzger. "The results of the IPCC reports are creeping into delegates' minds.

A series of reports issued this year by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are said to be the cause of diplomats now focusing their minds to acting fast on the issue of how carbon emissions are effecting the world's climate.

Read more at Yahoo News