Breakthrough sought at talks
2007-12-09 14:20
Nusa Dua - As a summit laying out plans for a new climate change deal enters its crucial last week, delegates say the world is demanding a breakthrough on one of the biggest threats facing the planet.
Prominent figures including former US vice president Al Gore and UN head Ban Ki-moon are expected in Indonesia in the coming days, along with environment ministers, who come to Bali with expectations piled on their shoulders.
"The whole year has been pointing at the Bali process," said John Coequyt, a climate campaigner from Greenpeace.
"We have been here for a week now and there is not a lot of difference in discussion, tone and energy from previous summits. Things are going to have to change when ministers get here."
Government delegates from some 190 countries, ranging from the poorest to the richest in the world, have gathered for the 11-day conference under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Their goal is to lay the groundwork for a new international initiative to combat the threat posed by climate change after the current phase of the existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012.
Scientists earlier this year issued their starkest warning yet - without action, the world could see irreversible effects of global warming, with hunger, floods, drought and extinctions of many plants and animals.
The reports by the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), along with Gore's hugely successful climate documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, have put the issue in an unprecedented spotlight.
"I will say (to ministers), the world is waiting - what is your political answer to what science is telling you?" said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC.
Just what action the world can agree on has dominated talks so far.
A key question is how much rich countries - who the IPCC say are historically responsible for most of the polluting greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere - should commit to slashing the amount of carbon dioxide they emit.
Europe and developing countries led by China are pushing industrialised nations to set a target to slash greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 to 40% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
Canada and Japan, however, are reported to be in favour of binding emissions targets for booming economies like India and China, but de Boer said that prospect was "inconceivable".
Some of the most outraged voices at the conference have come from the poorest nations, whose lives are already being devastated by global warming.
Representatives from tiny Pacific islands that are being swamped with salt water as ocean levels rise have said they are being forced out of their homes, while indigenous people said they were being ignored by decision makers.
Delegates from impoverished nations are calling on rich countries to increase funding to help them adapt to the changing world, and transfer technology that will help them cope.