U.N. climate talks begin, focus on post-2012 pact+

POZNAN, Poland, Dec. 11 Kyodo - Environment ministers and officials from about 190 countries began a two-day meeting Thursday in Poznan, Poland, to advance U.N. talks for a new climate treaty, with the U.N. chief calling for rich nations' leadership in fighting
global warming and a ''Green New Deal'' to address the financial crisis and climate change simultaneously.

Delegates will focus on whether all the 189 nations will adopt the goal of
halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as a ''shared vision,'' and
whether developed countries will pledge deep emission cuts with a midterm
reduction target, such as a 25-40 percent cut from 1990 levels by 2020, a range
advocated by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
However, the global financial turmoil and the European Union's discord over an
EU climate package for 2020 would make it difficult for delegates to achieve a
breakthrough in the fight against global warming.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said Poznan delegates must agree on a work
plan for next year's negotiations and need to ''sketch out the critical
elements of a long-term vision'' in which industrial countries ''must set
ambitious long-term goals, coupled with midterm emissions reduction targets.''
In an address, Ban also urged industrial countries to extend ''robust financial
and technological support -- not just promises, but tangible results'' to
developing countries to allow them to ''limit the growth of their emissions, as
well.''
Ban said a big part of the global stimulus needed to tackle the financial
turmoil should be ''an investment in a green future,'' an investment that
fights climate change, creates millions of green jobs and spurs green growth, a
deal that will work for both rich and poor nations.
The Poznan talks, officially called the 14th Session of the Conference of the
Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, represent the
half-way mark in two-year negotiations for a successor treaty to the
carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The negotiations are
scheduled to be concluded at key U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December
2009.
Japanese Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito said Wednesday that Japan -- as this
year's chair of the Group of Eight powers -- aims to share the 2050 target with
all parties to the UNFCCC.
Saito was referring to an accord by leaders from Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States during their July summit in
Toyako, Hokkaido, that called for sharing the mid-century target with all
UNFCCC parties in the quest to combat global warming.
''To achieve the 2050 goal, it is vital that developed countries present
ambitious (emissions reduction) targets and developing countries take part in
(the fight against climate change) with responsibility,'' Saito told reporters
after arriving in the western Polish city.
Saito said it is also important to ensure the involvement of the United States,
China and India -- which account for nearly half the world's emissions of
carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases -- as well as other major emitting
countries in a post-2012 framework.
Critics say the Kyoto pact is ineffective as it covers only 30 percent of the
world's emissions and fails to include the United States and China and other
emerging economies that will produce the bulk of the increase in emissions in
the coming decades.
Saito's call on all parties to share the 2050 target is likely to draw
opposition from developing countries because they insist that rich nations
first show commitment to reducing emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels
by 2020 and that industrial countries boost financial assistance and technology
transfer to help poor countries cut emissions and adapt to the impacts of
climate change.
Japan has pledged to reduce its emissions by 60-80 percent by 2050 from current
levels. But the world's fourth-biggest emitter has stopped short of unveiling a
reduction target for 2020 or 2030, saying it will announce one ''at an
appropriate time next year.''
Environmentalists criticized Japan, Canada, Russia, Australia and other
countries for blocking the inclusion of a strengthened reference to 25 percent
to 40 percent emission cuts by 2020 in the Poznan conclusions, which would have
gone beyond the agreement made at U.N. climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, last
year.
''Scientists tell us that a catastrophe is looming, and people across the globe
demand quick action,'' Kim Carstensen, leader of the Global Climate Initiative
at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International said Thursday. ''But
irresponsible countries still advocate regress where the plant needs
progress.''
''Poznan must give the U.N. a clear mandate to draft text for the new global
climate treaty, which would provide the next round of talks in March with a
strong basis,'' he said.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said earlier that an agreed outcome in
Poznan ''must spell out commitments on the part of industrialized countries,
including midterm emission reduction targets, and agree ways to raise
large-scale funds and deliver them effectively and transparently to support the
efforts of the developing world in mitigation and adaptation.''
European Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas said the European Union
will urge industrial countries to pursue the 25-40 percent reduction target by
2020.
Dimas said the 27-nation bloc believes the fight against climate change is
compatible with tackling the economic crisis, a message he wants to stress at
Thursday's session on a shared vision to combat global warming.
''Shared vision is actually part of the sustainable development vision,'' Dimas
told a news conference. ''Fighting climate change is compatible with
sustainable development...compatible with fights against the economic crisis.
And this message, which came up from this Poznan meeting, is very important.''