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Tuesday November 2 8:58 AM ET
Global Warming Conference Steps Up Gear
By Adam Tanner
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - An international conference on global warming moved into high gear Tuesday as environment ministers from around the world gathered in Bonn to hammer out details of a deal on cutting emissions of polluting gases.
The two-week conference seeks to follow up on an incomplete 1997 deal agreed in Kyoto, Japan, in which industrialized nations pledged to cut emissions blamed for global warming by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
The goal of the 168-nation Bonn conference is to decide when the world will start reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide to avoid a steady warming of the planet that could lead to major environmental problems.
Ahead of the meeting, U.N. environment chief Klaus Toepfer called on industrialized nations to lead the way by ratifying the Kyoto protocol, allowing emissions-cutting measures to be implemented as soon as possible.
He also suggested it was right that the burden of cuts, as foreseen in the Kyoto accord, should lie on rich countries.
``This will create room for economic growth in developing countries to be made more environmentally friendly,' Toepfer, head of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), told German ZDF television.
He added that developing countries should be given access to the new environmental technology that would enable them to secure growth without the pollution that accompanied economic progress in the developed world.
Strong divisions between the United States and Europe and between the industrialized world and developing nations has marked the meetings, making major progress uncertain.
In one dispute, the United States -- the world's leading polluter -- wants to be able to buy pollution ``credits' from nations that pollute less than their allowed limits, thus giving it greater flexibility on its own emissions.
The European Community, however, says most reductions must come from inside any given country, and so a cap on the purchase of pollution credits from others is needed.
German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said his government was aiming to ratify the Kyoto protocol as soon as possible, but said the process could be held up if the United States did not also commit to making the cuts.
``Climate protection makes no sense without the main polluter being in there too,' he told German daily Tagesspiegel.
Other disputes involve the penalties for nations which do not meet their pollution targets and a precise timetable for implementing a deal.
Officials say they do not expect to hammer out all the details of a global warming pact until the next conference in The Hague in the Netherlands next year, but hope substantial progress can be made in Bonn toward a final deal.
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