1,000 meet in Ghana for climate change talks
Last Updated: Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 11:13 AM ET
CBC News
Hundreds of negotiators are gathering in Ghana's capital to resume talks on a climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires.
The weeklong conference began Thursday in Accra, with more than 1,000 delegates in attendance.
Talks in the city located in Ghana's south will focus on pushing developing countries to join the fight against rising greenhouse gas emissions, but come at a difficult time, when many of the world's poor are more concerned with the cost of food and fuel.
India and China, two of the world's fastest growing polluters, were exempt as developing countries from Kyoto's obligations, arguing they were not responsible for global warming and their priority was to address poverty.
Harald Dovland, the Norwegian chairman of a key committee on updating Kyoto, said that gap needs to be bridged in the new treaty.
"We know what we need on a global level in terms of reductions," Dovland told the Associated Press. "We cannot continue forever saying this is an issue for the industrial countries, and no one else should do anything."
Accra marks the third conference since world leaders gathered last year in Bali, Indonesia, to begin current climate talks to cover the period after the Kyoto Protocol's obligations expire in 2012.
Negotiators are expected to talk about the draft language of the treaty in Accra, which will then be adopted at the next meeting in Poland, where specific targets will be discussed.
In early July, the Group of Eight countries expressed support for halving global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
At least five more meetings are scheduled to hammer out the complex agreement, the progress of which has been frustratingly slow.
Dovland said the Accra talks will falter "unless we come with a spirit of co-operation, trying to resolve things instead of making things more and more complicated."
"The political pressure isn't strong enough," said Kathrin Gutmann, policy co-ordinator of the WWF Global Climate Initiative. "A lot of governments don't have positions yet and are going through internal processes where ideas are still festering."
Dovland said his group will hold its first discussion in Accra on possible economic and social "spillover effects" of steps taken to control climate change.
Countries relying on tourism, for example, are worried about a possible decline in air travel if carbon taxes are imposed on airlines.
Among the ideas to entice developing countries are payoffs for halting deforestation, a major contributor to carbon emissions, and rewards for specific industries.
With files from the Associated Press
