International talks on climate change in Bangkok ended Friday with negotiators from 192 countries making little headway toward a post-2012 commitments to fight global warming.
The Bangkok conference is the first of a series of negotiations for 2011 for greenhouse gas emission cuts beyond 2012 to replace the current Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Under the Kyoto Protocol 37 industrialized countries, referred to as the Annex 1 countries, have made commitments to a legally binding cut of their greenhouse gas emissions until 2012. No new agreements beyond 2012 have been agreed as divisions remain between countries on the amount of GHGs emissions to be reduced by each country.
Scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say greenhouse gases, the culprit for global warming that cause climate change, should be reduced from 40 to 44 billion tonnes to avoid the “tipping point” of world temperature which is 2 degrees Celsius. When the world temperature reaches 2 degrees Celsius catastrophic impact of climate change like more extreme typhoons, hurricanes, rising sea levels and drought will be beyond control.
Studies show that reduction emissions agreed by countries in the Kyoto Protocol are inadequate to reverse the rising global temperature.
In Bangkok, only the EU and Indonesia signified an openness to enter into another round of commitment to increase their country’s level of GHGs reduction after 2012. Developing countries are pushing for the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol while other developed countries have not conceded to an increase of their target cuts despite the major negotiations in Cancun last December.
Japan and Russia signaled that they do not favor a second round of commitments but prefer a pledge-and-review system that would allow each country to set their own climate change agenda without any binding, international agreement.
On the other hand, Jonathan Pershing, US chief negotiator on climate change, said that the US will only join future legal commitment if other major economies will be legally bound as well.
The US refused to ratify the Kyoto pact while China, considered as a developing country, is not required to cut emissions.
China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, followed by the US.
Meanwhile, the head of the EU delegation, Arthur Runge-Metzger said without commitment from other developed countries, “It would be impossible to stay below 2 degrees. We alone are not going to be able to fight climate change.”
The next climate change discussions will be held in June in Bonn, Germany. Without specific progress in negotiations, however, reaching an agreement during the major conference in Durban, South Africa at the end of this year will remain uncertain.
