"Parties are not agreeing, but they're disagreeing in a very polite and civil way,"

FROM-WAPO

Climate Change Conference Ends Without Agreement

A United Nations conference on climate change -- intended to lay the groundwork for a global agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions in December -- concluded today with negotiators little closer to a deal.

The conference in Bonn, Germany, follows a U.S. House committee's passage of a bill to cap American emissions. The bill's sponsors had hoped it would inspire the world to take serious action against climate change.

That didn't happen. More...
Instead, some other countries and environmental groups criticized the House bill -- which calls for a 17 percent reduction in U.S. emissions, as compared with 2005 levels, by 2020 -- for aiming too low.

Then they criticized Japan, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, when it announced a similar target: cutting emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Developing countries have called for richer nations, which have been pumping hefty amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for longer, to set more stringent goals.

With the gap between industrialized and developing countries still wide, the best that U.N. officials could offer were small achievements, and praise for the tone of the two-week session.

"Parties are not agreeing, but they're disagreeing in a very polite and civil way," said diplomat Michael Zammit Cutajar, who chaired a panel at the talks, in an online press briefing.

Instead, some other countries and environmental groups criticized the House bill -- which calls for a 17 percent reduction in U.S. emissions, as compared with 2005 levels, by 2020 -- for aiming too low.

Then they criticized Japan, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, when it announced a similar target: cutting emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Developing countries have called for richer nations, which have been pumping hefty amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for longer, to set more stringent goals.

With the gap between industrialized and developing countries still wide, the best that U.N. officials could offer were small achievements, and praise for the tone of the two-week session.

At the same time, U.S. and Chinese officials held a separate round of talks on climate change in Beijing, hoping to forge a bilateral agreement. The United States and China together produce about 40 percent of the world's emissions, and observers say that their cooperation will be crucial at the December talks, to be held in Copenhagen.

But, as in Bonn, these talks produced little of substance. In fact, a Chinese official said yesterday that his country would not agree to cut its emissions overall.

"China is still a developing country and the present task confronting China is to develop its economy and alleviate poverty, as well as raise the living standard of its people," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said." Given that, it is natural for China to have some increase in its emissions, so it is not possible for China in that context to accept a binding or compulsory target."

At the State Department today, U.S. climate envoy Todd D. Stern -- who participated in the China talks -- said that he still wanted China's emissions to grow less than they are projected to.

"We are expecting China to reduce emissions very considerably, compared to where they would otherwise be" if emissions grew at the current pace, Stern said. "That's not an absolute reduction below where they are right now."