Global leaders are in intensive negotiations at the United Nations climate talks as the session went into its last legs late on Thursday.
The negotiations were in a state of flux as some 50 elected ministers led by the Mexican presidency held intense but open discussions all through the penultimate day of talks. Several press conferences were cancelled as negotiators buried themselves deep in the negotiations in a race against time to produce a positive outcome by the final day of the Cancun summit.
Early morning on Thursday, a coalition made up of small island nations, the Europeans and Costa Rica put forth a proposal aimed at breaking a deadlock over the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
The two-paragraph document called for a conclusion of a legally binding climate agreement at next year’s UN climate change meeting in Durban, South Africa. But this proposal and the fragile mood of the conference were vaguely threatened by inaccurate British media reports that this document was a ‘secret text’.
Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh dismissed the rumour, saying that it created “a trust deficit”. “There is no secret text,” he said.
Negotiators said the proposal would allow countries including Japan, which has opposed a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol - to negotiate a new agreement by next year which includes the United States and major emerging nations such as China and India.
Mr Ramesh said at this stage, developing countries were not agreeable to a legally binding agreement. He had been giving mixed signals at the conference, which started during a high level segment on Wednesday when he appeared to say that India was ready to change its long-standing position and agree to legally binding cuts.
He later clarified that there was no question of India accepting a legally-binding agreement at this point, and that his statement was a general one to keep the option open in the face of increasing pressure amongst nations to accept a legally binding deal.
China had also given inconsistent signals when its lead negotiator Xie Zhenhua appeared to have said China was open to legally bind its pledges, a stance which was later refuted by another Chinese official who maintained that China’s pledges will only be voluntary.
Later in the day, talks seemed to be on a knife-edge, with Bolivia apparently walking out of negotiations after making hardline demands and accusing capitalist nations of causing genocide.
“If we here throw the Kyoto Protocol into the garbage dump, we would be responsible for economy-cide, for ecocide - indeed, for genocide - as we would be harming humanity as a whole,” said its leader Evo Morales.
The talks have remained deadlocked over the fate of the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan’s foreign ministry official Akira Yamada told reporters that Japan maintained its view that an extension of the protocol beyond 2012 is neither “fair nor effective”.
“Right now, we are like the few soccer players in the stadium… with spectators looking on and criticizing… when all the major emitters should go down in the playing field to tackle climate change together,” he said.
Japan’s ultimate goal is to aim for a single legally binding international framework “in which all major emitters participate”, he said.
Meanwhile, environmental groups have stepped up the pace of demonstrations to put pressure on negotiators to come up with a successful outcome. One demonstrator posed as a dead polar bear outside the conference room with a sign next to it that said: “US inaction equals death”.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres had issued a hopeful statement earlier on Thursday, saying that she saw a “willingness of Parties to move positions”.
She said ministers were engaging in “active and open exchanges” to reach political consensus on anchoring mitigation pledges, deciding on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, finance, forests, technology transfer and adapation.
“But more needs to be done. I call on all sides to redouble their efforts and use creative ways to reach solutions, to travel the last mile to a successful outcome.”
