Stalemate Holds Up New Pact on Climate

• DECEMBER 11, 2010

By CASSANDRA SWEET

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CANCUN, Mexico—The fate of the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty appeared uncertain Friday as diplomats struggled to finalize a package of agreements to address climate change, while a global treaty on the issue stalled amid a stalemate among the U.S., China, Japan and other nations.

Governments from nearly 200 countries have spent the past two weeks at a United Nations-sponsored summit in Cancun discussing ways to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, verify and report emissions reductions and provide financial assistance to poor countries hit by drought and other effects of climate change.

Expectations for a global climate treaty were low, but many countries hoped to make progress on agreeing to a second phase of the 1997 Kyoto treaty. The first phase of the treaty ends in 2012.

Diplomats worked into the night to draft an agreement on a variety of issues, including using a common method for measuring, reporting and verifying emissions reductions; solidifying pledges that rich countries made at last year's climate talks in Copenhagen to provide billions of dollars in climate aid to poor nations; and a financing program to protect the world's forests.

Japan announced that it wouldn't commit to a second phase of the Kyoto treaty unless the world's largest greenhouse-gas emitters, namely China, the U.S. and India, would also agree to cut their emissions under a legally binding agreement. The announcement drew the ire of poor countries that blame industrialized nations for most heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere and believe rich countries should drastically cut their emissions to avoid higher global temperatures that could result in environmental disaster.

The U.S., which isn't a party to the Kyoto treaty, has long maintained that it would only agree to mandated emission cuts if China and other large polluters also agreed. U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern has suggested that a new climate treaty should be based on a package of voluntary greenhouse-gas emission-reduction agreements that countries agreed to at last year's climate talks in Copenhagen. Japan has expressed interest in pursuing that idea, if the U.S., China and India joined Japan, European nations and other developed countries as equal partners.

India's environment minister said Friday the outlook for the Kyoto Protocol is uncertain.

India softened its stance on a climate treaty during the Cancun talks, saying it would consider agreeing to legally binding emissions reductions, rather than merely cutting emissions voluntarily, as outlined in the Kyoto treaty. Mr. Ramesh wouldn't comment on whether India would support a new treaty based on the Copenhagen Accord.

Chinese leaders said their country is committed to the Kyoto Protocol, although they said China would not agree to mandated emissions reductions, preferring instead to cut its emissions voluntarily as outlined in the Kyoto treaty.

Diplomats from China, the U.S., India, European countries and other nations said they hoped a broad, legally binding climate treaty could be agreed at climate talks scheduled a year from now in Durban, South Africa.

Write to Cassandra Sweet at cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com

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