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UN’s Ban Ki-moon says Copenhagen conference may not agree full details of new climate pact
By David Stringer, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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| British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, left, shakes hands with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, prior to their meeting at his official residence at 10 Downing Street, in central London. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Lefteris Pitarakis, pool) |
LONDON - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that world nations are unlikely to strike agreement on details of a new climate change pact at a key U.N. summit next month.
Ban said he no longer expects nations to commit to firm emissions limits at the December summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"I’m reasonably optimistic that Copenhagen will be a very important milestone. At the same time, realistically speaking, we may not be able to agree all the words," Ban told reporters after holding talks in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The new pact - which is being worked on at U.N. talks this week in Barcelona, Spain - is meant to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. The Kyoto treaty committed 37 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gases, while the new pact would apply to developing countries as well.
Years of negotiations over the new pact have been dogged by disputes between industrial and developing nations.
"We need at this time the political will - if there is a political will, there is a way we can come to a binding agreement in Copenhagen," Ban said.
Ban said he would push leaders to conclude a pact in Copenhagen, but said it is more likely that only agreement on principles - rather than specific targets for cuts - would be reached.
He said industrialized countries must agree to make ambitious targets to reduce emissions, and to provide sufficient financial support to developing nations to allow them to limit their emissions. Ban also wants developed countries to offer technology to allow poorer nations to adapt to the impact of climate change, and an agreement on how the pact will be enforced.
"Every day we are fighting to get an agreement that will be binding," Brown told reporters.
The European Union on Friday called for C5 billion to C7 billion ($7.5 billion to $10.3 billion) in climate change aid to poorer nations over the next three years, reaching C100 billion, or nearly $150 billion a year, by 2020.
But EU nations failed to agree on exactly how much the bloc itself would contribute to the aid fund.
Brown insisted the EU and other industrialized nations are making good progress on the fund, which he said was "absolutely crucial to persuading developing countries that we are serious about helping them tackle the problems that arise from climate change."
He said that, if a legally binding pact cannot be reached immediately, the Copenhagen meeting should produce a detailed basis for such a treaty to be agreed on in 2010.
British officials believe a treaty won’t be agreed before U.S. commitments on emission reductions are settled. Legislation is making its way through Congress, but is unlikely to be completed before the Denmark summit.
Brown plans talks Wednesday with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and on Friday with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen.
Britain also plans to focus on climate funding at the Nov. 6-7 summit of finance ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations.
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