EU says U.S. main block at climate talks
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Lack of U.S. ambition is the "one main blocking issue" preventing 190 nations in Bali from launching negotiations on a global climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol from 2013, the EU said on Thursday.
The December 3-14 talks are finely balanced on what range of emissions cuts rich countries should aspire to guide them in more detailed negotiations over the next two years on individual national emissions targets.
In addition, poor nations want to know how much money rich countries will pay them to help adapt to climate change already happening and to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
"We are a bit disappointed that all the world is still waiting for the United States," Humberto Rosa, Portugal's Secretary of State for Environment, told Reuters in an interview.
Portugal holds the rotating EU presidency and Rosa is the EU's chief negotiator at the Bali talks.
"The U.S. has been using new words on this -- engagement, leadership -- but words are not enough. We need action. (That's the) one main blocking issue."
The EU wants all developed countries in Bali to agree to a specific ambition in fighting climate change, through a guide range for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
"We need a range because that's what we think is compatible with what science is telling us, and science is telling us something of urgency and of commitment," said Rosa.
In August, countries that have ratified Kyoto backed an aspirational target for rich nations to cut emissions by 25-40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The United States has refused to ratify the protocol and has resisted any reference to specific emissions reduction goals in Bali.
The latest draft Bali text published on Thursday said Kyoto countries, excluding the United States, were considering the same emissions-cutting range for all developed nations.
"We haven't heard a clear commitment from the U.S. that their effort will be of the same nature and level as other developed countries," said Rosa.
When asked if the 25-40 percent range was negotiable, he said: "That's yet to be seen. The range must be compatible with what science, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) tells us."
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The European Union itself has come under fire from environmental activists in Bali for not offering poor countries explicit funding to help fight climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Rich nations agreed to offer such assistance under the convention on climate change, signed in 1992, but developing countries say nothing has been forthcoming and so it is premature to start negotiating a new climate pact to succeed Kyoto.
"We didn't come to Bali with a check that we're ready to give to adaptation, to technology right now. That's what I call the unrealistic part of it," said Rosa.
"We want to reach 2009 with a very clear and concrete action pattern on technology transfer and adaptation."
The United Nations wants countries to agree on a successor to Kyoto during a meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009.
Rosa said that all governments attending the Bali talks, except Saudi Arabia, agreed on that timeframe.
"Saudi Arabia wants informal talks," he said.
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(Editing by David Fogarty)
