Climate Conference in Bonn
June 2, 2009
Environment groups have urged delegates at the 12-day meeting not to lose time in haggling over fine print and step up efforts to tackle global warming.
Activists demonstrated on Monday in front of the Bonn hotel where the meeting kicked off.
Demonstrators displayed an ice sculpture of the famous "Little Mermaid," the emblem of the Danish capital, to press calls for a speedy treaty for the Copenhagen conference in December this year.
The meeting in Bonn, attended by delegates from over 180 countries and 200 non-governmental organizations, is the second of five rounds of negotiations meant to put in place a final agreement for the Copenhagen conference in December. Three further climate change meetings are scheduled for this year.
Demonstrators held up posters reading: "Copenhagen has to succeed -- for a fair climate protection treaty" and "Climate Protection Now."
"Unprecedented challenge"
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released a draft document on May 20, which laid the groundwork for the Bonn talks.
The text of a new climate-change treaty is currently a compendium of conflicting opinions and options that demonstrate the deep divisions on how best to tackle global warming.
Despite the sprawling range of proposals, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said he hoped that the draft will be endorsed as a workable basis for talks over the coming months.
“The political moment is right to reach an agreement," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that the Copenhagen climate conference in December is going to lead to a result. If the world has learned anything from the financial crisis, it is that global issues require a global response,” de Boer said.
Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research, said he hoped for a treaty that would "in some way live up to the dramatic nature of the situation."
Schellnhuber, who is also Chancellor Angela Merkel's environment advisor, told Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel that overcoming the climate crisis was an "unprecedented challenge for civilization."
Rich and poor countries at loggerheads
The draft proposes that developed countries reduce carbon emissions by 75 to 95 percent by 2050, measured against 1990 levels.
The draft also sets the first-ever targets for developing nations to reduce the carbon emissions blamed for global warming. Emerging economies, like India and China, would have greater leeway, aiming for 25 percent reductions by 2050 measured against a 2000 baseline.
These goals are guidelines only, since no countries have yet agreed on targets to be reached by 2020.
Developing countries are demanding assistance with financing, technology, and capacity building to stem climate change, requirements that are sure to feature in negotiations with rich nations before final targets can be incorporated into a new treaty.
Alongside China, the United States is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and, for the first time, the new US administration under President Barack Obama has moved to take a leading role in the fight against climate change.
The US is seen as key to the success of any climate agreement since it never ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
sp/gb/dpa/AP
Editor: Chuck Penfold/Trinity Hartman