Kyoto climate wrangling continues

Protesters dressed as Bush, left, the Statue of Liberty, centre, and Uncle Sam

BONN, Germany -- Environment ministers from around the world are bargaining over a draft that seeks to salvage the Kyoto climate agreement without U.S. participation.

The draft accord includes significant European concessions to Canada, Japan and Australia that would allow them to credit conservation measures against their pollution reduction targets, The Associated Press reports.

The 1997 treaty aims to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012, and be ratified by 55 nations responsible for 55 percent of emissions worldwide to come into force.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who indicated earlier that all countries except the United States were ready to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, told a news conference on Sunday from the Group of Eight summit in Italy that he did not expect climate talks in Bonn to reach an agreement acceptable to Canada.

"Bonn will not probably have our agreement. We need some more clarifications and credits," he said.

Chretien's comments are in contrast to optimistic comments from Bonn on Saturday.

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After hearing the reports from four committees that drafted positions for the final negotiating document, meeting chairman Jan Pronk told The Associated Press: "There is progress and a deal might be in the making."

Belgian envoy Olivier Deleuze said: "The process is now speeding up. We are waiting for comprehensive global text that can be put on the table for the last hours of negotiation."

The latest proposals presented to the delegates late on Saturday cover four vital areas: Financing, emission credits for forests soaking up carbon dioxide, mechanisms for offsetting pollution reduction targets and sanctions for failing to meet those targets.

Though environment ministers and top officials were scheduled to negotiate through Sunday night, Deleuze indicated that if a deal were close, talks could continue another day -- but said an agreement cannot be delayed for future meetings.

The European Union was credited with flexibility in abandoning its quest for caps on credits for forest and agriculture land, which absorb emissions.

"The moment of truth is approaching," Deleuze said.

"Negotiation seems like dancing the Tango, two steps forward, two steps back and suddenly three surprising steps forward," EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said.

U.S. President George W. Bush renounced the signature by his predecessor, Bill Clinton, on the Kyoto treaty that set binding targets to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases causing changes in the Earth's climate.

Bush said it was unfair and harmful to the U.S. economy.

At Saturday talks in Genoa, Italy, a Japanese official said "a very spirited" discussion of the Kyoto treaty was held.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who said last month that Japan would not implement the Kyoto treaty without U.S. participation, has found himself pressured by both sides in the dispute.

French President Jacques Chirac, who was lobbied aggressively for other leaders to resist U.S. pressure, was beginning to rethink his own position, a French official told AP.