By DPA
Bali Island (Indonesia) : The delegates at the UN world climate conference in Bali Saturday reached an agreement on an outline for reaching a pact to fight global warming after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The deal was reached following a dramatic final session of the marathon talks that saw the US delegation drop its objections to the final document.
Head of the US delegation Paula Dobriansky said that 20 hours after the scheduled end of the conference, her country did not want to stand in the way of agreement.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had earlier urged the delegates to reach a breakthrough. “Too much is at stake. The alternative to a breakthrough in our efforts here and now is not acceptable,” he said.
The global climate conference had lasted two weeks, with negotiators from more than 180 countries engaged almost non-stop during its final three days in trying to iron out a compromise on guidelines for negotiations to create a post-2012 global climate agreement by the end of 2009.
A sticking point was whether the guidelines should mention scientific evidence about the need for emissions cuts of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
India and China had also raised last-minute objections to a passage, which would for the first time have required developing countries to accept emission reduction commitments.
India wanted countries to set their own targets, allowing it to limit the impact of the regulations on its economy.
China was seeking new consultations outside of the plenary session.
The controversy centred on whether developing country emissions reduction measures should be called “actions” or “contributions”, and their linkage to technology and financing.
Munir Akram, who leads the main negotiating bloc of developing countries, the G77, said developing countries had come under “strong pressure and even faced threats” of trade sanctions to also accept mandatory emission reduction commitments that he called “unfair and unjust”.
Developing countries are not required to accept emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, and they say that any such commitments would cramp economic growth and curb poverty reduction efforts. In this context, the G77 has been resisting concerted efforts from some developed countries to press for a comprehensive new agreement.
Indian minister Kapil Sibal reiterated the unity of the G77 on this position, saying, “We don’t want to come out of here diluting the content of the convention and the protocol…that is at the centre of our position.”
The conference was scheduled to end Friday, but wrangling over targets for cutting world greenhouse emissions continued until well into the night before the agreement was reached.
While the European Union, supported by most developing nations, was aggressively pushing for the 25 to 40 percent target range to be included in the text, it was being opposed by the US, Canada, Japan and Australia, which say any mention of numbers will prejudge the negotiations.
In an attempt to break the deadlock, the conference president, Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, proposed revised language dropping the numbers but still reaffirming that emissions should be reduced at least by half by 2050.
Witoelar’s proposal provided a basis for a potential compromise, producing a relatively vague mandate for two years of negotiations. The draft was to instruct negotiators to consider incentives and other means to encourage less developed nations to curb carbon emissions on a voluntary basis.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer had told reporters late Friday that the main issues left on the table were how to describe the climate change mitigation responsibilities of developed and developing countries, and how to reference the scientific prognosis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its implications for future actions and commitments by developed nations.
The Kyoto Protocol, which requires 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by five percent below 1990 levels, is to end in 2012. The US is the only rich nation, which has not ratified the protocol.