UN climate negotiators bickered in Doha on Monday over cash and commitments needed to curb Earth-warming greenhouse gases, even as fresh alarm bells were rung about the perils the planet faces. Halfway through 11-day talks, nearly 200 nations remained far apart on issues vital for unlocking a global deal on climate change, said delegates at the talks in Qatar's capital.
Poor countries were insisting Western nations sign up to deeper, more urgent cuts in carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol after the pact's first round of pledges expires at year's end. They were also demanding the rich world commit to a new funding package from 2013 to help them cope with worsening drought, flood, storms and rising seas.
Resolution of both questions should smooth the way to a new treaty that must be signed by 2015 and enter into force in 2020 to roll back global warming. "What gives me frustration is that we are very far behind what science tells us we should be doing," UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) chief Christiana Figueres told a press conference, but added she retained "hope."
Some delegates began to voice fears of deadlock ahead of ministerial-level talks, starting on Wednesday, to crown the annual negotiations under the UN banner. A new study warned Sunday that Earth could be on track for warming above five degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 - at least double the 2C (3.6 F) limit targeted by the UN. It follows other research which said polar ice-cap melt had raised sea levels by nearly half an inch (11 millimetres) over the last two decades, and that Arctic ice shrivelled at an unprecedented rate in 2012.
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Maria van der Hoeven, warned Monday that limiting warming to 2C "is becoming more difficult and more expensive with every passing year." And the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), gathering nations at high risk from warming-induced rising sea levels, said: "Time is running out to prevent the loss of entire nations and other calamities in our membership and around the world." Despite the warnings, observers say the Doha talks have become stuck.
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