BANGKOK – U.N. climate talks in Bangkok will end Friday without progress on the pressing issues of emission targets for rich countries and financing for poor nations, who insist they will not sign a global warming deal unless those matters are resolved.
For months, negotiations have been deadlocked and delegates have begun raising doubts whether a new climate pact to rein in greenhouse gases can be reached by the time world leaders gather in Copenhagen in December. The pact would replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Rather than addressing the tough issues, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said late Thursday that the failure by rich countries to agree on ambitious emission cuts and billions of dollars in financing to help poor countries adapt to climate change has increased the distrust between the two sides.
"People in this negotiating process mainly developing countries say we have been engaging constructively over the past two weeks to put meat on the bones of an agreed outcome in Copenhagen," de Boer said.
"But we are not seeing an advance on the key political issues," he said. "The stark reality out there is that unless we see an advance on the key political issues, it is very difficult for negotiators in this process to continue their work in good faith."
Even before the talks ended Friday afternoon, environmentalists including the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace were already criticizing governments for leaving the fundamental issues to future meetings in Barcelona next month.
"With only five negotiating days, we can't continue to waste time on missing political mandates," the WWF's Kim Carstensen told The Associated Press.
"My concern is that without political clarity from capitals on issues like finance, emission reduction targets and how we get developing country actions to count in the international framework, the next meeting in Barcelona will be another talk shop without the political breakthroughs we need," Carstensen said.
Most countries want a new climate pact that includes measures limiting temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, a level necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. But so far, there is no consensus on how to reach that goal.
Industrialized nations have offered emission cuts of 15 to 23 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 _ far short of the 25 to 40 percent cuts scientists and activists say are needed to keep temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.
In the United States, which rejected the Kyoto Protocol because it exempted countries like India and China from obligations, a bill that passed the House of Representatives would reduce emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels _ about 4 percent below 1990 levels _ by 2020. The Senate is considering its own bill that would cut emissions 20 percent.
Only Norway announced a new target at the meeting, saying it would reduce by 40 percent, up from a previous commitment of 30 percent, by 2020.
Developing countries have said they want to do their part but have refused to agree on binding targets and want to see more ambitious cuts by the West. They won't sign any deal until the West guarantees tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance.
During the Bangkok meetings, there were several studies highlighting the cost of paying for mitigation and adaptation. The World Bank estimated it would cost as much as $100 billion a year through 2050 for adaptation while the International Energy Agency estimated it would cost $10 trillion over the next 20 years if the world wants to transition to a clean economy _ three-quarters of the funding coming from rich countries.
But there were no breakthroughs on either a finance package or targets, delegates said, mostly because countries did not send their top leaders to this meeting. The United States also was hamstrung, delegates said, because it still does not have domestic climate legislation.