From The Times Online (1 hour ago) "European leaders and environmental campaigners reacted angrily yesterday after the United States rejected guidelines for reducing greenhouse gas emissions intended to check global warming.
The proposal, supported by the members of the European Union as well as Brazil, would have set out in writing an ambition to cut greenhouse gases produced by industrialised countries by up to two fifths in the next 13 years. The emissions cut would have been non-binding and subject to future negotiation, but even this was too much for the US, which opposes any reference to specific numerical goals in advance of more detailed negotiations next year.
The row has undermined the hopes of environmentalists for a strong and detailed statement of agreement among the 190 governments attending the United Nations climate change conference on the Indonesian island of Bali. They fear that without a reference to percentage targets, however non-commital, the “road map” to be agreed by environment ministers will amount to little more than an agenda and a broad timetable for negotiation.
Many doubt that there will be time to finalise a binding agreement by the projected deadline in 2009. “I do not need a paper from Bali in which we only say, ‘OK, we'll meet next year again',” Sigmar Gabriel, the German Environment Minister, said. “How we can find a roadmap without having a target, without having a goal?”
Stephanie Tunmore, a climate campaigner with the environmental group Greenpeace said: “We may end up at the end of this week with a pie which has no meat in it, and that would be disastrous. The science is telling us that we don't have time for this.”
After a week and a half of preparatory talks by civil servants, the environment ministers embarked yesterday afternoon on the final three days of intensive negotiations which are expected to run into the early hours of Saturday morning. The EU says that it will continue to demand the inclusion of specific emission goals in the final document."
