Climate Negotiations Mired In Politics - At Least 3 Years For New Framework, Say Observers - AFP

[hatrack]

Efforts to deepen action against climate change struggled against political obstacles on Thursday, the penultimate day of marathon UN talks to address the world's most pressing environmental threat. Negotiators battled for consensus among industrialised countries over the shape of a poker game, due to start next year, on future commitments for cutting greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol, delegates said.

EDIT

Negotiations for Kyoto's second commitment period, running from 2013 to 2017, will start in earnest next year. While some countries want the deal to be wrapped by the end of 2008, most expect the conclusion to come at the end of 2009, given the vast complexities -- especially the key question of developing countries' commitments.

This has major implications for the United States, for in essence it would sideline the US from shaping the 2013-2017 commitment period -- a process that potentially carries vast rewards in carbon trading and investment. "If we accept the premise that Bush is not going to change his stripes, then we are waiting for a new president" for any US return to Kyoto, said Greenpeace campaigner Steve Sawyer.

As every new president takes at least half a year to settle in, make new appointments and take the measure of Congress, it would be impossible for the United States in 2009 to ratify Kyoto in time to join the negotiations for 2013-2017 round, Sawyer observed. "The timing works just about right for the US to come in for the formal negotiations on (...) the third commitment period, covering 2018 to 2022," he said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061116172849.tgppa3mi.html