Climate talks 'waste of time'

Negotiations this week in Barcelona were aimed at hammering out a workable blueprint for a crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich Friday blasted UN climate talks in Barcelona as "a waste of time", as hopes faded of sealing a new global warming treaty by the end of the year.

- That was a waste of time. Nothing was achieved whatsoever - Berlakovich said of the Barcelona meeting in an interview with the Austria Press Agency.

But he insisted - We absolutely need a global agreement - on climate change.

- The UN's credibility is also on the line - he added.

Negotiations this week in Barcelona were aimed at hammering out a workable blueprint for a crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

But the European Union was the only region to make any proposals at the Barcelona talks and nobody but Japan had reacted to them, not even the United States, Berlakovich criticised.

- It is five seconds to midnight - he added, hinting that time was running out to come to a viable agreement to reduce emissions from fossil fuels that are causing global warming.

On Thursday, British Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband already warned that the Barcelona talks were - not going well - and that the Copenhagen summit may fail to set up a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso also said Tuesday that it was "obvious" a - full-fledged binding treaty, Kyoto-type - could not be completed in Copenhagen.