DURBAN, South Africa — With heat-trapping carbon at record levels in the atmosphere, U.N. climate negotiations opened Monday with pressure building to salvage the only treaty limiting greenhouse-gas emissions.
The U.S., Europe and the developing countries laid out diverging positions at the outset, even as South African President Jacob Zuma called for national interests to be laid aside “for a common good and benefit of all humanity.”
The talks face a looming one-year deadline with the December 2012 expiration of the commitment by 37 industrial countries to cut carbon emissions, as required under the Kyoto Protocol. At issue is whether those countries would accept another period of greater emission reductions.
As the talks opened, Canadian television reported that Ottawa will announce its formal withdrawal from the Kyoto accord next month. Canada, joined by Japan and Russia, said last year that it will not accept new commitments, but renouncing the accord would be another setback to the treaty, concluded with much fanfare in 1997.
Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent said he would neither confirm nor deny the report.
Canada’s withdrawal would not immediately affect the Durban talks, said Artur Runge-Metzger, chief negotiator for the European Union. But doubts about the Kyoto deal were one reason the EU was conditioning its acceptance of new commitments on an agreement in Durban from China, India and other major emitting countries that they will adopt legally binding commitments by 2015.
Developing countries say Kyoto is the only instrument that binds wealthy countries to specific targets.
