The US and the EU stepped back from confrontation yesterday as global talks on climate change headed into extra time amid hopes they could still reach a compromise.
US and EU officials both voiced optimism that the 12-day talks would yield an agreement as delegates braced for a potentially long night over how much commitment to show in reining in greenhouse gases.
BAN KI-MOON
Adding to pressure for a deal, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would return today to the conference on the Indonesian island of Bali to "engage myself in continuing further negotiations."
"Climate change is an issue that affects the future of all humanity," said Ban, who had been expected to return straight to Jakarta from a visit to East Timor.
Still, he said he hoped delegates would come to an agreement by themselves later yesterday.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer had urged the conference to wrap up work by noon yesterday, but said he was still hopeful even after the talks passed their official deadline of 6pm.
"It's very difficult to say at this moment how long exactly it's going to take," he said. "There will still be work that needs doing."
But the mood was brighter and the horse-trading more serious compared with Thursday, when the negotiations were gridlocked by accusations and sourness, delegates said.
I am "always optimistic. I think we will have an agreement," Harlan Watson, the US senior climate negotiator, said on the sidelines of the meeting.
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: "The climate in the talks about climate has changed a bit."
The biggest stumbling block in Bali has been over whether the text should include figures indicating how far industrialized countries are willing to cut emissions to meet scientists' appeals for drastic, early reductions.
The figures sketched are cuts of 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, which the EU and emerging countries say are essential as a show of goodwill from the countries historically most to blame for warming.
But the US is against any move it suspects would haul it down the path toward Kyoto-style emissions curbs.
`ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM'
On Thursday, new Nobel peace laureate Al Gore blasted the US' tactics and urged the world to sidestep Washington, saying the next US president to be elected next year would change position.
Gore drew cheers at the talks by saying the US was the main block to negotiations in Bali.
"I am going to speak an inconvenient truth," Gore told an audience of several hundred, playing on the name of his Oscar-winning documentary. "My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress in Bali."
"I don't know how you can navigate around this enormous elephant in the room, which I've been undiplomatic enough to name. But I'm asking you to do it," he said.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS