EU pushes for Kyoto compromise

Demonstrators on Saturday demanded a deal

The European Union is pushing hard for other countries to accept a final compromise paper aimed at breaking the deadlock at UN climate talks in Bonn.

It is not a good paper for Europe

Olivier Deleuze
EU lead negotiator

German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, warned that further concessions could "make the Bonn conference and the Kyoto Protocol a failure".

The conference chairman, Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk, indicated that the compromise plan proposed early on Sunday was a take-it-or-leave-it proposal.

However, there are signs that Canada, Japan and Australia might not accept the compromise.

Protesters condemn the US president's stance on global warming

And the United States, the world's largest producer of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, has already rejected the 1997 protocol.

Mr Pronk has said the talks might be extended into Monday in an effort to reach some kind of accord.

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The talks were suspended early on Sunday morning to allow delegates a few hours sleep before discussions resume.

Allowances

The Bonn talks are trying to thrash out the details for implementing the pollution-reduction commitments made at Kyoto - notably a 5.2% reduction in global emissions of six greenhouse gases by 2012, relative to 1990 levels.

Pronk: Take it or leave it offer

The latest paper includes generous allowances for the use of forests and farmland to reduce the amount of emission cuts countries have to achieve.

In return they would have to give up the right to use investment in nuclear power as an alternative to cutting greenhouse gases.

BBC News Online environment correspondent Alex Kirby in Bonn says the compromise plan would cut greenhouse gases by less than half the amount set in the Kyoto Protocol.

Mr Pronk has said the paper is intended as a final deal for countries to accept or reject, not as a basis for further negotiations.

Big problems

The EU's lead negotiator, Belgian Energy Minister Olivier Deleuze, said Europe had "big problems" with the compromise document.

The US is adament that it will not ratify Kyoto

"But if it's a take it or leave it paper, in the spirit of flexibility and because we have talked enough about climate change over the last 10 years, Europe is ready to accept it."

Key issues of contention remain, including how strictly the protocol's requirements will be applied, and the extent to which the planting of pollution-absorbing trees - so-called carbon sinks - can be used to meet targets.

Policy regarding carbon sinks has divided Europe from Japan, Canada, Russia and others. The dispute was one reason for the failure of The Hague talks on the Kyoto Protocol last November.

Mr Deleuze said he now expected the G8 leaders to discuss the deal on Sunday, at their meeting in Genoa.

But although the European Union is determined to hammer out a plan, other countries feel less pressure.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said in Genoa that he did not expect a deal to be reached in Bonn.

Argentine Environment Minister Raul Estrada said that he expected any deal in Bonn to be "partial".

"Anything which is not sorted out here will be handed on to Marrakesh," he said, referring to the next round of Kyoto talks, due in Morocco in late October.