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Source: Reuters
Environmental groups accused delegates in Bonn of being too leisurely. A draft climate change statement by the group of eight leading rich nations -- for release at a G8 meet next month -- suggested the U.S. was balking at emissions targets.
Both the Bonn and G8 meetings are meant to feed into U.N. talks to get a global climate deal by the end of next year in Copenhagen, to come into force after the first round of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The present Kyoto pact caps the greenhouse gases of some 37 industrialized countries, but not those of the world's top two emitters -- the United States and China.
"Work should start here without delay ... the volume of work on the road to Copenhagen is huge and the time is short," the European Union told the first session in Bonn.
The U.S. is blocking efforts for the G8 summit to set targets for cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, according to a draft seen by Reuters, preferring to discuss these at a "major economies meeting", a U.S. initiative, on the fringe of the G8.
Draft statements showed no suggested U.S. emissions targets for either meeting.
The main sticking point in climate talks is how to split the cost of re-deploying the world's entire energy system away from fossil fuels, and especially how soon emerging economies should accept caps on their greenhouse gas emissions.
U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson told senior officials from more than 160 countries gathered in Bonn that it was too early for substantial outcomes. UN officials said that definite agreement on emissions targets would come only next year.
"No-one can tell you that today," said Harald Dovland, chair of a UN group steering talks on targets for rich countries. "That'll be in Copenhagen," he told Reuters.
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Greenpeace International's Bill Hare said the Bonn talks were heading into trouble unless countries offered "quite concrete ideas", and referred to climate science suggesting global emissions must peak in the next 10 years to have the best chance to avoid dangerous warming.
The Bonn talks coincide with criticism of policies to cut greenhouse gases -- especially support for biofuels, as well as carbon taxes and emissions trading -- which stoke soaring energy and food prices.
Racing food prices have sparked riots in developing nations such as Haiti and a record oil price has hurt motorists, prompting protests and blockades in Europe. These events, together with an economic slowdown, threaten to distract attention from climate change.
"They're absolutely right to worry about food and energy costs but not addressing climate change would probably increase both," the UN's climate chief Yvo de Boer told Reuters on Monday, referring for example to crop damage from droughts.
The head of the UN's climate agency (UNFCCC) rejected the idea that carbon-cutting biofuels should be banned, after driving up food prices by using food crops such as corn to make an ethanol alternative to gasoline.
"I think biofuels are a very important part of the solution," he said. Another U.N. agency, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, hosts a summit this week in Rome to debate high food prices.
