India and China objected on Saturday to a draft deal at United Nations talks in Bali meant to launch negotiations on a global pact by 2009 to fight climate change, saying rich nations should do more to lead the way.
After overnight talks lasting well beyond a Friday deadline, India demanded changes to a final text at the 190-nation talks, saying rich nations should do more to provide clean technology and finance to help the poor fight global warming.
”The need of the hour is for enhanced commitments and instead we see a huge watering down,” said Indian delegate Chandrasekhar Dasgupta.
”This is a conspiracy,” a Chinese delegate said of a draft text presented on Saturday to delegates, many of whom had stayed up most of the night in negotiations, by the Indonesian hosts of the two-week meeting at a beach resort in Bali.
”We want the needs and demands of the G77 and China to be reflected in the final text,” Guoshun Sun, a senior Chinese delegate, told Reuters.
”We can work very hard to come up with a text but that does not mean we can sacrifice our position to have a watered down text. That is not possible,” Sun added.
If the dispute is resolved, the meeting would launch two years of talks on a sweeping new worldwide treaty to succeed the UN’s Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 and link in outsiders including the United States and all developing nations.
China and India, the number two and four emitters of greenhouse gases, want concessions before committing to talks that would make them do more to curb their soaring emissions. Kyoto sets greenhouse gas caps for 37% nations.
And many developing nations are unhappy that the draft text cut out a tough guideline for the rich to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 to end a United States-European Union dispute.
”I am still optimistic,” said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, despite the deadlock. ”Everything centres around the question of how much is expected of industrial nations.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, trying to put pressure on delegates to agree, arrived in Bali on Saturday morning for an unscheduled return after a visit to East Timor. But he put off a planned news conference as the talks dragged on.
”Frustrated, the clock is ticking and nothing’s happening,” UN climate chief Yvo de Boer told Reuters about his view of the meeting, meant to set a ”roadmap” for a deal to fight ever more powerful storms, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels.
Suspense
Soon after resuming on Saturday morning, the talks were suspended with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda meeting developing nations to discuss their demands.
But Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer told Reuters the EU, which backed a draft text presented earlier, said the Indian demands were ”unacceptable to the EU”. Canada, an early objector to parts of the draft, also said it would support the latest text.
Tempers, stretched by days of late-night sessions, showed signs of fraying. A Chinese delegate demanded an apology from UN organisers when a plenary session briefly reconvened when Wirajuda was still meeting with developing nations.
Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, hosting the session, shot back: ”Time is running out and technically we have to conclude this session.”
The United Nations says that a successor to Kyoto needs to be in place by the end of 2009 to give three years to ratify and help guide investors who want to know rules for carbon markets, for instance, or coal-fired power plants. – Reuters