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Climate Pact Progress Slow

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The Associated Press

Published: June 14, 2008

BONN, Germany - A U.N. conference on a new climate change agreement adjourned Friday claiming modest progress, but with delegates concerned that the slow pace posed the risk of failing to complete an accord on time.

The end of the meeting coincided with a new report by a Dutch environmental monitor that China's emissions of greenhouse gases sharply increased last year, and it now emits 14 percent more than the United States.

The delegates from 172 countries began gathering specific proposals on how to slow global warming by curbing carbon emissions, how to help poor countries adapt to climate change and how to raise the hundreds of billions of dollars needed annually.

But participants said not enough ideas were put on the table.

The talks aim to produce a successor accord to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set targets for 37 industrial countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5 percent by 2012.

Bill Hare, of the Greenpeace environmental group, said wealthy countries had failed to offer concrete suggestions or creative solutions, and nearly all of the innovative ideas came from developing countries.

"Unless the pace accelerates, unless political roadblocks are removed quickly and urgently, there is a major risk of failure in these negotiations," he said.

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