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Major polluters clash over goals for cutting emissions

Climate negotiators from the world’s biggest polluters clashed over how deeply to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases, but decided to hold new talks aimed at reaching an accord.

They also agreed on the enormity of their task.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, addressing the negotiators on Friday, warned that global warming is threatening food supplies and risks sparking a dozen Darfur-like conflicts — involving displaced, starving populations — around the world.

A South African participant said unchecked global warming would cost the world a staggering US$200 billion a year to overcome, the meeting’s co-chairman Jean-Pierre Jouyet said.

No fixed targets were set at the two-day Paris meetings, which were “dominated” by debate over how much to cut emissions, said Jouyet, France’s junior minister for Europe.

“There were divergences” between the EU and US positions, he said, without elaborating.

The EU has pledged to cut its emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, while the US has not committed to fixed cuts.

The so-called Major Economies Meetings bring together delegates from 16 countries that produce about 80 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. They are feeding broader UN efforts to follow up the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires signatories to reduce emissions. The pact expires in 2012.

The major polluters meetings were launched last year by the US with the goal of producing a climate agreement at the G8 summit in Japan in July.

A key idea being floated is a 50 percent cut in global emissions by 2050.

Since this week’s talks produced no fixed goals, the participants agreed to two more meetings, later this month and next month, Jouyet said.

No dates or venues were given.

Participants described this week’s talks — which ran several hours late into Friday night — as difficult, tense and lively.

The South African report of a US$200 billion annual cost for mitigating global warming sparked intense discussion about where to get all that money.

“The amount is so huge it is not a question of debating whether it is correct. What we need to do is make funds available immediately,” said Koji Tsuruoka, director general for global issues at Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

US, Japanese and French participants welcomed a Mexican proposal for a global fund, involving private and public money, focused on climate change.

The French president urged massive new flows of private investment to fight climate change.

Sarkozy also said that water shortages were already “having a considerable impact on security,” especially in Africa.

Participants at the talks came from the US, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.
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