Environment ministers at the UN climate talks discussed a compromise deal today aimed at bulldozing through the toughest problems blocking the Kyoto Protocol, with just 24 hours left for a breakthrough.
The chairman of the talks, Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk, was putting the finishing touches to a proposed blueprint which would seek to unravel issues that have entangled the global-warming accord since its birth in 1997.
"The moment of truth is approaching," Belgium's deputy for the environment and energy, Olivier Deleuze, whose country currently chairs the EU, said.
"We have had huge difficulties to agree on the procedure and the implementation rules of the Kyoto Protocol," he said.
"We have been discussing (for) years... I don't think we should discuss years more or even months more about the procedural rules, otherwise it would be a bad sign given by the international community."
Ministers could negotiate all night in a bid to reach agreement, some delegation sources said.
One source said there was a need to complete things before the end of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa, Italy in case a paramount opinion was needed from the leading industrialised countries, especially on financial questions.
The ministers have given themselves until late on Sunday to agree on the biggest problems blocking completion of the agreement's rulebook, an arena for bitter feuding ever since the climate-change pactpted way back in 1997.
If they get a convincing deal, that could pull Kyoto back from the cliff's edge after US President George W. Bush abandoned the accord four months ago.
Kyoto commits 38 industrialised countries to making a 5.2-percent cut in global emissions of six "greenhouse gases" by a 2008-2012 timeframe compared with 1990 levels.
These carbon-rich gases -- overwhelmingly the result of burning fossil fuels that have powered the rise of rich countries -- are driving the Earth to possibly disastrous climate change, scientists say.
Four big issues need to be settled:
- FORESTS:Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia are demanding concessions for their forests and farmland. As plants absorb airborne carbon dioxide (CO2), this land should be counted as a benefit and partially set against their national emissions of greenhouse gases, thus reducing the cost for their economy, they argue.
The EU has been demanding a cap on these so-called "sinks," seeing them as a potential loophole.
- MECHANISMS:These are provisions for setting up a market in trading CO2 emissions among rich countries and for giving rich countries emissions credits if they provide clean technology to poorer ones.
Deleuze said there was room for a trade-off on "sinks," provided nuclear power was excluded from this so-called clean development mechanism.
- COMPLIANCE:The EU is demanding legally-binding rules and punishment for countries that fail to meet up to their obligations. This is opposed by several countries, led by Australia and Canada.
- FUNDING:Pronk is seeking funding for help for developing countries bearing the brunt of climate change that would amount to a billion dollars a year from around 2005.
The big question is how to find this money, given that the United States, as the world's biggest polluter and hence biggest contributor, has pulled out.
In Tokyo, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported that Japan believed a breakthrough on funding was possible and was willing to boost its assistance fivefold to reach it.
That report was backed by a delegation source, who said the quid pro quo was a concession on how Japan's "sinks" are calculated.
In Genoa, an Italian spokesman said the G8 leaders failed to narrow their differences over Kyoto on Saturday.
"There was discussion and the well-known positions were maintained," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, said.
AFP