INDONESIA:Dispute centres on future cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, in Bali
The UN Climate Change Summit descended into deadlock here yesterday with just one day left to reach agreement on a "Bali road map" for two years of more intense negotiations on how to tackle global warming.
One of the main stumbling blocks is an increasingly strident row between the EU and the US over a proposal in the draft text to specify target cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of between 25 and 40 per cent by 2020.
The inclusion of such an ambitious target is supported by the EU and other countries such as Norway, but opposed by the US, Canada and Japan. The US delegation has stated that mention of any specific figures at this stage would "pre-judge" the outcome of future talks.
EU ministers could not conceal their frustration over the refusal of the US to be more ambitious, and even threatened to boycott the next meeting of major economies which the Bush administration is convening in Hawaii at the end of January to discuss global warming.
"We are disappointed that we have reached this stage of the negotiations and still haven't heard from the US what is the level of their engagement in the Bali process," said Humberto de Rosa, the Portuguese environment secretary. Portugal currently holds the EU presidency.
"The US has been using new words on this - engagement, leadership - but words are not enough. We need action," he told Reuters. Without real leadership from the world's only superpower, the EU fears it will be more difficult to engage China, India and other developing countries.
Environmentalists were blunter in expressing their frustration over the current deadlock. Jennifer Morgan, of the Climate Action Network, said: "There is a wrecking crew here in Bali led by the Bush administration and its minions - Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia."
But UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon supported the US position on Wednesday when he said the 25 to 40 per cent range - derived from the latest scientific assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - was "too ambitious" for Bali.
Agreeing that there needed to be a target, whether it was short-term, medium-term or long-term, the UN chief said: "Practically speaking, this will have to be negotiated down the road" - in the next round of negotiations, which even the US agrees should conclude in 2009.
Yvo de Boer, Dutch executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) warned that the momentum generated by the IPCC's alarming Fourth Assessment, published this year, would be lost if Bali failed to produce a mandate for these negotiations.
"It's very difficult to put something in the fridge for six months and hope it hasn't passed its sell-by date . . . We're in a kind of all-or-nothing situation in that if we don't manage to get the work done on the future [ terms for negotiations] then the whole house of cards basically falls to pieces."
With the Kyoto Protocol - which commits industrialised countries (apart from the US) to cut their emissions by 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 - there is agreement that a deal must be struck on a successor regime in 2009, so that there would be no gap between them.
According to the IPCC, greenhouse gas emissions worldwide must peak in 2015 and then start falling if the rise in average global surface temperatures is to be contained at two degrees. If it goes any higher, we would be risking "dangerous climate change".
Environmental groups have staged a series of stunts at the summit to dramatise the urgency of striking a deal.
The conference centre is watched over by two "eyes" on giant helium balloons carrying messages from young people around the world, collected by Solar Generation.
Also much in evidence is Kurt Willy Oddekalv, leader of Norway's Green Warriors, who dressed up as an American cowboy and carries "a rope for Mr Bush". He also has a branding iron, shaped like the Bali summit logo, which he intended to use to "brand the US president's butt".
The World Wildlife Fund staged another stunt in which activists dressed as giant snails urged delegates to keep the negotiations moving forward faster than snail's pace and agree to include deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in the mandate. Greenpeace baked a cake to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, which was spurned by president George Bush in 2001, while Conservation International released around 200 baby turtles into the sea on a beach near the conference centre.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley took a break to visit a turtle sanctuary on Serangan Island in Bali.
There, he was told turtles are also suffering the effects of climate change due to the "bleaching" of coral reefs, their principal source of food.