UN starts talks on long-term climate future

A major UN climate change conference has kicked off in Canada, amid deep transatlantic divisions over the best strategy to tackle global warming.

Up to 10,000 experts and politicians are expected to attend the two–week long gathering in Montreal, which is the first global meeting after the Kyoto protocol entered into force in February this year.

The Kyoto protocol, adopted in 1997, is an international agreement which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emission by industrialised nations by 5 percent in 2012, compared to 1990 levels.

However, it has not been signed by key nations such as the US, which resists binding commitments.

The UN talks in Montreal, aimed at designing a global strategy for the post-Kyoto period, are set to be dominated by the rift over the binding nature of the Kyoto protocol.

The Guardian reports that Washington is fiercely resisting efforts by host country Canada to make it commit to a joint statement by the UN framework convention on climate change, which would bind it to concrete action.

The US chief negotiator, Harlan Watson, is quoted saying "We feel very strongly that it is not appropriate, that the ground is not there yet; there are many different ideas; people are not yet ready to move ahead under the convention."

The US this summer clinched its own international deal to fight climate change - the Asian-Pacific climate agreement - together with Australia, India, China and South Korea.

The Asian-Pacific deal focuses on investment in climate-friendly technology, and sets no binding Kyoto-style targets.

The EU, represented in Montreal by environment commissioner Stavros Dimas, has signalled it wants clear commitments from the US in the post-Kyoto period.

The commissioner said in a recent speech that "future international climate co-operation must be based on broad participation in the global reduction effort - by all major emitters, including the US and rapidly developing countries."

However, the Europeans, who champion the Kyoto treaty by sharing the burden for Kyoto targets between member states and pioneering an emission trading scheme for companies, are set to miss the Kyoto targets themselves, recent reports have indicated.

The European Environment Agency said this week that the 15 "old" member states of the bloc are likely to cut emissions to just 2.5 percent compared to 1990 levels, according to the BBC.

With emissions in most member states still on the rise, this figure falls short of the targeted 8 percent cut for the EU under the Kyoto protocol in 2012.

In a major policy shift, UK prime minister was set on Tuesday to reveal in a speech that Britain may open new nuclear power plants in a bid to reach emissions targets, as well as to secure the country’s energy provision.