The prospect of an international regulatory framework to address the threat posed by climate change moved fractionally closer last week after the UN conference in Bangkok culminated in agreement on a negotiating road map designed to deliver a deal at the Copenhagen conference scheduled for December 2009.
As expected, the Bangkok meeting delivered no major breakthrough and long-standing tensions between the EU and other developed economies, as well as the US and Japan, and fast developing economies such as China were still evident.
However, delegates did agree plans for another seven rounds of negotiations ahead of the Copenhagen meeting, the first of which will take place in Germany in June and will address issues regarding the technologies required to curb carbon emissions and how they should be funded.
Speaking at a news conference to mark the end of the talks the UN's top climate change official Yvo de Boer said "the train to Copenhagen has left the station", adding that he was confident the agreed timeline for talks would help deliver a final agreement by late 2009.
"Not only do we have the certainty that critical issues will be addressed next year, we now have bite-sized chunks which will allow us to negotiate in an effective manner," he said.
However, Japanese delegates were left disappointed by the agreed schedule after their proposal for early talks on plans that would see a fundamental shift in the nature of the Kyoto agreement towards a "sectoral", rather than national approach, to curbing emissions was rejected. Under the new schedule discussion on the Japanese plans will be deferred to the third round of talks.
Developing economies have expressed suspicion of the plans – which would see emissions targets set based on industries with a particular focus on the most carbon intensive industries such as cement and steel – suggesting they could represent a means of allowing richer nations to offload much of their emission reduction obligations onto their poorer counterparts.
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