Emissions Goals Bedevil Bali Climate Talks

˝I´m very concerned about the pace of things,˝ Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said.

Bali climate talks could collapse "like a house of cards" unless 190 nations quickly settle rows blocking a launch of negotiations on a new global warming pact, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Thursday.

"I'm very concerned about the pace of things," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said on the penultimate day of the Dec. 3-14 meeting of more than 10,000 delegates on the Indonesian island.

The Bali talks are deadlocked over the exact terms for launching two years of negotiations on a global climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a pact that binds most industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases until 2012.

"We are in an all-or-nothing situation in that if we don't manage to get the work done on the future (terms for negotiations) then the whole house of cards basically falls to pieces," de Boer told a news conference.

Among disputes, the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia are resisting efforts to include a guideline for rich nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as a pointer for future negotiations.

The European Union, which favours the range to show that the rich countries will lead the way, accused Washington of being the main obstacle in Bali.

The range was in a latest draft on Thursday, outlining terms for talks meant to help avert famines, droughts, rising seas and a melt of Himalayan glaciers.

BLOCKING

"We are a bit disappointed that all the world is still waiting for the United States," said Humberto Rosa, Portugal's Secretary of State for Environment. Portugal holds the rotating EU presidency and Rosa is the EU's chief negotiator at the Bali talks.

"The U.S. has been using new words on this -- engagement, leadership -- but words are not enough. We need action. (That's the) one main blocking issue," he told Reuters.

Washington, which is outside the Kyoto Protocol, says guidelines would prejudge the outcome of the talks. And it says 25-40 percent range is based on relatively little scientific study.

De Boer said the talks had to settle all outstanding disputes by midday (0400 GMT) on Friday to give time for documents to be translated into the six official U.N. languages. U.N. climate talks often stretch long into the night on the last day.

Kyoto binds 37 industrialised nations to curb their emissions between 2008 and 2012. Poor nations, led by China and India, are exempt from curbs and President George W. Bush pulled out in 2001, saying Kyoto would harm the U.S. economy and wrongly excluded targets for developing nations.

The United Nations wants all nations to agree on a successor to Kyoto by late 2009 to allow governments time to ratify the new deal by the end of 2012 and to give markets clear guidelines on how to make investments in clean energy technology.

China wants talks on a new global compact to be extended.

"The Chinese want talks to drag on into 2010 to give time for a new American president to come on board. Not many other countries think that's a good idea," one developing nation delegate said. Bush will step down in January 2009.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates the objective must be that global temperatures rise no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and that global emissions peak no later than 2015.

"Future generations will judge us on our actions." He also said that the rich would have to take on the "main part of the cost" of helping poor countries curb greenhouse gas emissions.