Diplomats race for climate accord ahead of G8 summit

Senior officials from the world’s most industrialised countries will meet on 4 June, in a last-ditch attempt to reach a deal on tackling climate change, before leaders meet two days later for a G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.

‘Sherpas’ from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States will try to agree on how to tackle climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, amid deep divisions between the EU states and the US.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to get fellow leaders to launch talks on a post-Kyoto agreement that includes binding emissions reduction targets at a major United Nations conference in Bali, Indonesia, on 4-13 December.

She wants to conclude those talks by 2009. EU diplomats say that the 2009 deadline is essential, as it would allow two years for ratification before the Kyoto Protocol lapses.

In anticipation of a post-Kyoto deal, Germany has also proposed that G8 leaders agree on 6 June to limit global warming to 2?C and to cut long-term global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Intermediary targets for 2020 are expected in the post-Kyoto agreement.

But there is little sign of the US delegation agreeing to these targets. Leaked documents, widely reported by the US press, describe Washington’s "fundamental opposition" to Germany’s proposals.

The US is concerned about the impact that a worldwide cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions would have on industry and opposes setting mandatory emissions reduction targets.

At a bilateral summit in May, the EU and the US failed to bring their positions closer. EU diplomats after that meeting expressed hope that the US was waiting for the G8 meeting before announcing any shift in policy, but those hopes are now fading.

President George W. Bush, who pulled the US back from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, is a vocal opponent of any similar successor pact. Commenting on a possible post-Kyoto deal in July last year, he said: "If this looks like Kyoto, the answer is no."

According to Alexander Ochs, a senior research associate at the Berlin-based Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the EU is right to push the US hard and not to accept a deal as a face-saving exercise.

"The Europeans don’t seem willing to have some wishy-washy target and timetable just for the sake of agreement at the G8. We know from the [UN] Framework Convention on Climate Change that this issue is rather more urgent than we thought," he said.

Ochs added that the timetable set out by Merkel is already ambitious and should not be allowed to slip further. "Given how long these talks have taken in the past the deadline is already quite tight."

The EU increased pressure on Bush this week by agreeing a deal with Asian nations, including India and China, to conclude post-Kyoto talks in 2009. Next week it will try to convince Canada and Japan to do the same (see Page 16).

Pressure is also growing on Bush at home to alter his stance.

During a visit to Brussels on Wednesday (30 May), the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, described the EU’s initiatives on climate change as "a model for all of us".

But with time running out, diplomats are increasingly doubtful that a deal on climate change can be reached at the G8 meeting.

Merkel also said that she hoped the G8 leaders would make progress on the stalled Doha round of world trade talks.

She said that Africa was an important challenge for the summit and vowed that the G8 would honour pledges to increase aid to the world’s poorest continent made at its 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

A study published yesterday (30 May) shows rich nations have cut contributions to Africa and failed to improve trading conditions for developing countries.

Hedge fund transparency will also be discussed at the meeting. The EU and US, where most of the industry is based, are likely to support Germany’s push for an industry-led code of conduct aimed at promoting market discipline.

Senior officials from the world’s most industrialised countries will meet on 4 June, in a last-ditch attempt to reach a deal on tackling climate change, before leaders meet two days later for a G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.