Climate talks aimed at finalising the beleaguered Kyoto Protocol resumed in Bonn on Monday in a gloomy atmosphere. Few negotiators are expecting to do more than salvage something from the wreckage.
The top civil servant in the process told 快猫短视频 the best hope is for politicians to step back and re-examine their long-term goals. 鈥淲e are waiting for the US to say what it wants to do,鈥� admits Michael Zammit Cutajar, the executive secretary of the climate change convention, the treaty under which the protocol is being negotiated.
The meeting is technically a resumption of November鈥檚 failed talks in The Hague. It was delayed from May to allow new US president George W Bush to make new proposals on tackling global warming 鈥� he renounced the protocol after taking office. But in early July he revealed his new ideas would not be ready in time for Bonn.
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European governments say they remain determined to push ahead with the Kyoto Protocol. Japan, as host to the original 1997 agreement, is trying to mediate. But its prime minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Sunday: 鈥淲e will not be able to reach an agreement in Bonn, but there will be another meeting in Morocco in October.鈥�
Upper limit
However, the deadlock over targets for cutting emissions, should not stop negotiators agreeing on the Kyoto 鈥渞ule book鈥� says, Zammit Cutajar. This includes a complex system for allowing countries to gain credit for using forests to soak up carbon emissions and investing in clean energy in developing countries, and for trading in carbon permits.
鈥淚 believe that the rule book has a value that is independent of a political accord on the protocol itself,鈥� he said. Almost any agreement to cut emissions would need a similar system, he added.
Most important, he said, politicians needed to set a target for the maximum concentration of greenhouse gases they would allow in the atmosphere. This would 鈥済ive a sense of direction鈥� to talks on cutting emissions.
The climate change convention 鈥� which all nations signed in 1992 and which Bush still supports 鈥� sets the aim of preventing concentrations reaching 鈥渄angerous鈥� levels. 鈥淧olicymakers turn to scientists to tell them what a dangerous level would be. But scientists say 鈥榠t depends what risks you are prepared to bear鈥�. There is an impasse,鈥� he said.
Zammit Cutajar suggests the way out for politicians in Bonn is to suggest some possible targets. 鈥淭hen scientists could tell them the implications for each one. The policymakers could then choose.鈥�
