A United Nations conference on climate change — intended to lay the groundwork for a global agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions in December — concluded today with negotiators little closer to a deal.

The conference in Bonn, Germany, follows a U.S. House committee’s passage of a bill to cap American emissions. The bill’s sponsors had hoped it would inspire the world to take serious action against climate change.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, some other countries and environmental groups criticized the House bill — which calls for a 17 percent reduction in U.S. emissions, as compared with 2005 levels, by 2020 — for aiming too low.

Then they criticized Japan, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, when it announced a similar target: cutting emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Developing countries have called for richer nations, which have been pumping hefty amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for longer, to set more stringent goals.

With the gap between industrialized and developing countries still wide, the best that U.N. officials could offer were small achievements, and praise for the tone of the two-week session.

Source/Full Story: washingtonpost.com

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