UN non-binding climate plan incenses developing nations

UNITED Nations climate negotiators issued assurances yesterday that, despite low expectations for setting legally binding emissions targets next month, it is still possible to conclude a strong, 192-nation deal to define future work in fighting global warming.

Countries most vulnerable to climate change said they were incensed that rich nations were rethinking the timetable for concluding a legally binding treaty.

Delegates were spending the final day of UN climate talks in Barcelona, Spain, hammering out a draft political agreement in which rich nations would make hard pledges to reduce emissions and to finance aid for helping the world's poorest cope with the affects of the Earth's rising temperatures.

The idea of next month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen ending with a political deal, rather than a legally binding agreement, disappointed developing nations suffering severe droughts, floods and other catastrophes blamed on rising temperatures.

The shift follows acknowledgment that several countries, including the United States, may not be ready to sign a legal pact by next month.

Yvo de Boer, the UN official who is shepherding the talks, said negotiators were still aiming to achieve a significant deal that would set goals, even if they weren't legally binding.

"Governments can deliver a strong deal in Copenhagen, and nothing has changed my confidence in that," de Boer said.

The deal may take the form of consensus decisions including a statement of long-term objectives, along with a series of supplemental decisions on technology transfers, rewards for halting deforestation and building infrastructure in poor countries to adapt to global warming, delegates said.

De Boer said he was looking to the US to announce a clear emissions target for 2020.

De Boer suggested 40 heads of government would be attending the Copenhagen summit.

The head of the bloc of developing nations criticized rich nations for failing expectations after two years of tough negotiations for a legal treaty.

"Nonperformance, nondeliverance and noncommitment by the developed countries is acting as a break for any meaningful progress," Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping said.

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