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Tuesday, 21 November, 2000, 22:20 GMT
Time running out for climate agreement
![]() Jan Pronk urged all parties to listen and compromise
By environment correspondent Alex Kirby in The Hague
The president of the UN climate conference, now in its second week in The Hague, says the chances of a successful outcome are no higher than 50-50. The last few days have been marked by deep divisions between the United States and European countries over strategies for reducing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which cause global warming.
With the conference due to end on 24 November, he was urging countries to compromise. But the prospects for any agreement on some issues remain slight. Efforts at compromise Mr Pronk said his greatest worry had been allayed - the conference had moved from discussing procedure to negotiating in earnest.
"People are showing that they want a compromise." Mr Pronk said he was urging people to listen to each other, and to explore the possibilities of compromise. "I try to encourage them to give and take", he said. The conference is trying to finalise the workings of the international treaty on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, so that it can be ratified and then enter into force. Divided But the meeting is deeply split between two blocs.
The EU says at least 50% of the cuts in emissions which countries have to make must be in domestic pollution. Against this, the US and its supporters say it does not matter where the cuts are made.
The chief US negotiator, Frank Loy, said he was encouraged by the progress the delegates were making. The most difficult issues were still ahead, he conceded. Call for flexibility And he said: "It's time now that we commit ourselves to a pragmatic, not a dogmatic approach. We're past the time for rhetoric - we need give and take. The US has shown flexibility."
The protocol requires a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries of 5.2% below their 1990 levels by 2010, with the US committed to a 7% cut. Mr Loy said that the US now faced a reduction of 35% from 1990's levels, because since then its economy had resulted in a 28% increase in emissions. The EU has rejected as "unacceptable" a US proposal about the use of forests to absorb carbon dioxide - the protocol allows some use of such "carbon sinks", and the conference is at an impasse over what role they should play. Mr Loy said he did not want to comment specifically on the EU's rejection. But he said the reasons which had prompted the US to make the proposal remained totally valid.
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