Monday, 20 November, 2000, 01:03 GMT
Climate talks 'could fail'
Jan Pronk adds a sandbag to protesters' sand
barrier
By environment correspondent Alex Kirby in The
Hague
As government ministers gather in The Hague for the
UN conference on climate change, the president of
the
talks, the Dutch environment minister, Jan Pronk,
has
warned there is no guarantee of success for
international efforts to halt global warming.
Mr Pronk said he was
frustrated at the slow pace
of the talks, and the
differences remained vast.
He said everything now
depended on the delegates'
willingness to compromise.
The Kyoto Protocol, agreed in Japan three years
ago,
commits nearly 40 developed countries to cut their
emissions of carbon dioxide and five other
greenhouse
gases, which many scientists are convinced are
responsible for global warming.
Emissions
The overall cuts would reduce emissions of the
gases
by 5.2%, compared with their 1990 levels, by some
time between 2008 and 2012.
One of the stumbling
blocks at the talks, which
began a week ago, has
been the insistence of the
US and a number of other
developed countries that
they should be allowed to
achieve much of their
Kyoto reduction targets
without actually reducing
their emissions at all.
The protocol offers ways
for them to do this, for
example, by buying emission rights from countries
which cannot use them, or by funding clean energy
schemes in developing countries.
The European Union, and
most environmental
campaign groups, say the
spirit of the protocol
demands real cuts in
emissions in the countries
that have signed it, and the
prospect of deadlock
between the EU and the US now haunts the
conference.
Compromise
Speaking to journalists after an informal meeting
of 35
countries, Mr Pronk said: "The list of what has
been
achieved so far is not long. The task ahead of us
is
much bigger, and very difficult. I am frustrated
with the
pace of the talks over the last three years.
"The pace this last week
was a bit quicker. But if we
go on at this same pace,
we will still be talking in
2008. We need the
politicians' involvement to
move things on."
The conference moves
onto a higher plane on
Monday, with the arrival of
government ministers from
many countries to take
over the preparatory work
done by their officials.
Mr Pronk said compromise was now the key.
"I see movement in the right direction from the two
extremes," he said.
"If that movement can be speeded up by the
politicians, we'll be going in the right direction.
There is
a real chance. But the chance is not big."
Forests
The US denies strenuously that it is seeking to
hold
up any deal, and says it remains totally committed
to
tackling climate change.
Worryingly, though, US sources are saying that they
have already offered compromises, and that they
believe no-one else has yet done so.
They say they have shown their good faith by
agreeing
not to argue for nuclear power as a major way of
offsetting greenhouse emissions.
And they say they have shown their willingness for
a
gradual phase-in of the use of forests, which
absorb
carbon dioxide while the trees are growing, as a
legitimate way of reducing emissions.
The prospects for the sorts of compromise Mr Pronk
is
searching for before the conference ends on 24
November seem slim.
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