中国气候变化信息网 China Climate Change Info-Net

UN top climate official Yvo de Boer struck a more optimistic note at his second press briefing in Bali, Indonesia, in the late afternoon than earlier, saying that the technology issue had now been solved, which meant that technology needs assessments made by developing countries would be turned into concrete project proposals.

De Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said there were also more encouraging signs with regard to a post-2012 agreement.

Still to be resolved was how to formulate the objectives of industrialized countries on the one hand and those of developing countries on the other, he said.

On the issue of emission reduction ranges, de Boer said: "What's becoming clear to me is the more robust industrialized countries are willing to be in terms of the effort they are working towards, the stronger the reaction you're likely to get from developing countries."

If these commitments were watered down, he said, G77 countries would be justified in asking why they should be more ambitious.

During Thursday's noon briefing at the midpoint of the critical ministerial segment of the UN climate conference, he voiced concern about the pace of negotiations.

He explained that many of the outstanding issues taken into the high-level segment had been linked to each other, thereby creating an "an all-or-nothing situation," and that if the work on a future agreement was not completed in time, then "the whole house of cards falls to pieces."

The two-week climate meeting, which is due to end on Friday, came to a deadlock as the United States and the EU traded of blocking the Bali meeting, which is set to draw up a "roadmap" for launching negotiations on a global new climate deal before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The United States, Japan and several other governments refuse to accept language in a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25- 40 percent by 2020, saying specific targets would limit the scope of future talks. But the European Union favors the text.

The EU even threatened to boycott a U.S.-led climate talks in Hawaii in January if there is no substantive progress at this Bali meeting.

"No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting," said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to a series of separate climate talks initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush in September.