The world must agree long-term cuts in greenhouse gases by the end of 2009 to give businesses time to adapt to new rules beyond the UN's Kyoto Protocol running to 2012, Finland's environment minister said on Tuesday.
Finland, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency, favours far deeper cuts in emissions than under Kyoto, forcing big changes in lifestyles mainly by squeezing use of fossil fuels widely blamed for stoking global warming.
"We Finns are extremely pragmatic so we are not going to start a big fight about a certain year," Jan-Erik Enestam told Reuters when asked if UN climate talks in Nairobi from November 6-17 should set a deadline for agreeing a successor to Kyoto.
"But it's obvious that by 2009 at the latest there must be a clear view of what will happen after 2012 - for the private sector, for business," he said on the fringes of an EU-US meeting in Helsinki on climate change and renewable energy.
"They must know because they want to decide on their investments," he said.
Many environmental groups want talks on a successor to Kyoto, whose first period runs to 2012, concluded by end-2008 as part of a drive to brake rising temperatures that could bring more heatwaves, raise seals, spread disease and disrupt farming.
Some other experts say talks may have to last until 2010 to leave the door open for the United States after President George W. Bush, a Kyoto opponent, steps down in January 2009. The United States is the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases.
Billions of dollars in investments will be determined by the dates. Enestam also said it would be surprising if environment ministers meeting in Nairobi tied themselves down to firm dates.
"If we manage to set a timetable, fine. But as soon as possible is the real challenge," he said. "I'm not very optimistic about Nairobi being able to set a fixed date. It would be a positive surprise."
Kyoto obliges 35 rich nations to cut emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Many Kyoto nations are above target.
The EU says that developed countries should aim for cuts of 15-30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and consider cuts of 60-80 percent by 2050 to avert what could be vast costs of coping with climate change. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying that its curbs on greenhouse gases would damage the US economy and that it wrongly excluded developing nations. He has instead invested heavily in new technologies, such as hydrogen and "clean coal".