Global climate treaty postponed by up to a year

It could take up to 12 months after the Copenhagen summit in December to agree a new legally binding global climate treaty, EU member state officials predicted on Thursday as the latest round of UN climate talks in Barcelona entered its final stages.

Senior EU negotiators said Copenhagen could deliver a substantive political agreement http://www.endseurope.com/22536?referrer=bulletin&DCMP=EMC-ENDS-EUROPE-DAILY together with a timetable for turning this into a legal treaty. European Commission officials estimated this could happen 3-6 months after Copenhagen, but the Swedish EU presidency and UK officials said it could take up to a year.

"Copenhagen is more important than ever," Sweden's lead negotiator Anders Turesson insisted on Friday. "The deal from Copenhagen needs to be concrete." Without mid-term emission reduction targets and financing proposals "we will not have a deal", UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said.

Above all the US must present figures for emission reductions and financing for there to be an agreement in Copenhagen, he added. The US has held up international climate negotiations because its domestic climate bill is mired in the senate.

"It's a Catch-22 situation," said chief EU negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger. "People are waiting for each other so it is difficult to blame anyone. [But] the US position is significant. Clearly the US has been slowing things down."

Mr Runge-Metzger suggested that any mid-term reduction targets the US proposed would not be judged purely on their own merit. "It's not only the emission reduction target that's important, also support to developing countries and R&D," he told reporters on Friday.

The unsolved questions of emission reductions and financing bogged down debate over reforming the carbon market in Barcelona, according to analyst Point Carbon. Jason Anderson from WWF said little progress was made in most areas in Barcelona, although there was a constructive debate on the EU's aviation and maritime proposals http://www.endseurope.com/22438?referrer=bulletin&DCMP=EMC-ENDS-EUROPE-DAILY.

*Meanwhile, climate change, energy and trade issues dominated the annual EU-India summit in New Delhi on Friday. India's prime minister Manmohan Singh told reporters India did not yet have an emissions reduction goal. India and the EU agreed joint investments in several environmental technology projects, including solar energy.

Follow-up: Barcelona climate talks homepage http://unfccc.int/meetings/intersessional/barcelona_09/items/5024.php

and closing press release

http://unfccc.int/files/press/news_room/press_releases_and_advisories/application/pdf/closing_pr_barcelona.pdf.

See also ENB coverage http://www.iisd.ca/climate/rccwg7/ and reactions from WWF http://www.endseurope.com/docs/91106a.doc,

CAN-Europe http://www.climnet.org/061109_PR_Barcelona.pdf, Oxfam

http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-11-06/rich-countries-must-step-out-us-shadow-and-do-right-thing, plus Global Water Partnership

http://www.gwpforum.org/gwp/library/091103_WaterDay_press_release.pdf on the removal of a reference to water in the draft text on adaptation. See also EU-India summit declaration

http://www.se2009.eu/polopoly_fs/1.22333%21menu/standard/file/Joint%20Statement%20EU-India%20Summit.pdf plus Swedish EU presidency

http://www.se2009.eu/en/meetings_news/2009/11/6/climate_top_of_the_agenda_at_summit_in_india

and European Commission http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1678&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

press releases.

ENDS Europe Daily is Europe's leading environmental news service. A free trial is available by clicking on the following link: http://www.endseuropedaily.com/web/helcom.