CLIMATE TALKS IN DANGER OF UNRAVELLING AS CHINA AND US CLASH

[Environmentalists fear Copenhagen deal could fall apart over backsliding and changes to demands. Photograph AP]

By John Vidal

The heatwave that led to the Russian wildfires is a warning governments cannot afford to ignore at the Bonn climate talks, environmentalists warn.

Global climate talks have sunk to a new low after China and the US clashed and rich countries lined up against poor in a refusal to compromise on emission reduction targets.

With just six days' negotiating time left before a critical meeting in Cancun, Mexico, some diplomats fear that the fragile deal struck in Copenhagen last December could unravel.

Rather than slim down the negotiating text to allow politicians to make choices at Cancun, the US, China and many developing countries all added pages to draft texts in a series of tit-for-tat moves that critics said had sent the talks backwards after a week of meetings.

"Events outside [such as the Russian heatwave and the Pakistan floods] are consistent with what we can expect from climate change," said Jonathan Pershing, the lead US negotiator at this week's meeting in Bonn. "But I am very concerned that some countries are walking backwards in the progress made since Copenhagen. If we continue to go down this road, there is no hope of an agreement in Cancun. All parties are stepping back."

"We see backsliding and [making] no progress", said the Grenadian ambassador, Decima Williams, who chairs the Aosis group of 43 small island states in the frontline of climate change. "We are not matching actions with the science. We have failed to respond to the evidence of climate change."

The lead EU negotiator, Peter Wittoeck, warned: "The negotiating text is getting bigger and bigger. There is now a danger of it exploding."

But some developing countries said the text, which will be negotiated at a final preparatory meeting in China in October, now better reflected their positions than theCopenhagen accord.

Nearly half the countries in the world – 107– are committed to holding temperature rises to no more than 1.5C rather than the 2C which the EU, US and rich countries prefer.

"Important improvements have been made", said Pablo Solon, the Bolivian ambassador to the UN.

The US failure to put in place domestic legislation that would commit it to reaching its target cuts was not a problem, said Pershing. "The US stands by its commitments. We are not backing away from legislation. We have multiple tools at our disposal" for cutting emissions.

But the US and China, the world's two largest energy users, appear to be further apart than in December. The two clashed over whether mitigation action by developing countries would be subject to international verification. This issue nearly wrecked the talks in Copenhagen.

In the view of many delegates, the US appeared to be more isolated than last year because support for the Copenhagen accord appeared to be slipping. "The balance has shifted back to developing countries. Countries who signed up to it are not accepting it wholesale as the US thought they would", said one diplomat.

NGOs in Bonn berated rich countries for lack of ambition. "US negotiators appear to have hardened their stance and other developed countries are dragging their feet. The pledges to reduce emissions by just 12-18% are far less than what is needed," said Asad Rehman of Friends of the Earth International.

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