Emission cut pledges revealed in Bonn are “miles away” from what is needed

The figures from 39 industrialised countries, excluding the US, were issued to delegates at this week’s UN climate change conference in Bonn, the latest in a series of meetings leading up to the Copenhagen summit at the end of the year.

In an interview for Reuters in Bonn this week, Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said the 2020 promises made by 39 industrialised countries were "miles away" from the ambition needed to meet the goal, set by the G8 leaders last month, to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

But campaign group Greenpeace has blamed the G8 leaders themselves for this – for failing to agree any mid-term targets or a date for a global peak in emissions.

“While the G8 agreed to keep global temperature rise to two degrees, and long term targets for 2050 of 80 per cent greenhouse gas emissions cuts for the developed world, it provided no leadership on how to get there,” Greenpeace said.

The climate change talks taking place in Bonn this week have been billed as “informal”, apparently to foster an atmosphere where issues can be resolved, clearing a path to an agreement in Copenhagen.

De Boer told Reuters that the task in Bonn is to reduce a 200-page draft text for a new climate pact, which he said had about 2,000 square brackets, indicating points of disagreement.

One of the biggest obstacles to an agreement in Copenhagen is getting consensus on whether the big polluters of the developing world, notably India and China, should be included in any treaty commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Developing countries point out that most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere come from the industrialised countries, while societies such as India remain desperately poor. But the US has made it clear that a deal in Copenhagen depends on India and China being included in any agreement.

"We see success in Copenhagen as in no small measure a function of what all these major players do," Jonathan Pershing, head of the US delegation in Bonn, told BBC News.

"Ourselves, Europe, China, India, Japan – it has to be the major emitters. If we think of a group of about 15 countries, they comprise of the order of 75 per cent of global emissions. We can't solve this without them; you need them all and they all have to move immediately."

Resolving such differences ahead of Copenhagen is by no means a given. As De Boer observed: "You're looking at hugely divergent interests, very little time remaining, a complicated document on the table and still a lot of progress to be made on some very important issues like finance."

Greenpeace has called on governments to put pressure on the UN meeting to come up with a consolidated text to allow real negotiations to start at the next session in Bangkok in late September.

“Time is running out. To get a good deal at the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit, governments must put their own shallow self-interest aside, act for the climate and get down to some real work,” said Martin Kaiser, Greenpeace’s international climate policy co-ordinator.

The Bonn conference continues until Friday.