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BONN: Gruelling efforts to craft a pact on climate change enter a crucial phase today when a 192-nation U.N. forum takes its first look at a draft text for negotiations.
The 12-day huddle in the German city of Bonn under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) means that, after 18 months of swapping visions, the process will at last get down to the gritty stuff.
Little more than six months are left before the Bali Road Map, launched in Indonesia in 2006, reaches its supposed destination at a Copenhagen summit: an accord that will transform global warming from a monster into a manageable problem.
Curly brackets
On the table is a small mountain of paper whose notable feature is curly brackets, denoting discord among scores of submissions.
Despite the sprawling range of proposals, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said he hoped that the draft will be endorsed as a workable basis for talks over the coming months.
"There will be a negotiating text on the table for the first time," he said. "I hope it will be well received, that it will be seen as a balanced representation of the different ideas that countries have come with."
The big goal is to slash emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. But that's where consensus largely ends. Exactly how deep should be the cut be? How can it be achieved? And who should shoulder the burden?
Tough goals
In their proposals, many developing countries say rich countries, which bear historical responsibility for today's warming, should take the lead by cutting their emissions by 25 to 40% by 2020.
China has led the charge, demanding a cut of "at least" 40%. But only the European Union (EU), which has set its own reduction of 20% by 2020, deepened to 30% if other advanced economies play ball, is anywhere near such a figure.
After eight long years of vilification, the United States is now being warmly embraced in the climate arena as Barack Obama bulldozes George W. Bush's policies.
