By Pat Reber Dec 10, 2011, 22:04 GMT
Durban, South Africa - South Africa's foreign minister huddled Saturday in marathon political talks with climate delegates in Durban, one eye on the clock and the other on disappearing delegates rushing to catch long-booked flights.
The end game of the 17th annual UN climate talks was at hand, and the question was whether Maite Nkoana-Mashabane would master the multi-level chess game of bringing 193 countries to one conclusion about the future Earth's temperature.
The goal during the day, added on at the last minute after 12 days of talks, was to secure political consensus from the high-level and ministerial representatives before they dashed out the door.
'You have to know how long it will take her to get consensus and political support,' said Alden Meyer, a climate expert at the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists.
The tough debate centred on difficult and sometimes obscure issues such as the difference between 'legally binding,' as demanded by the European Union for a future treaty, or just plain 'legal,' which the United States and China seemed to think would suffice.
Samantha Smith, leader of the global climate and energy initiative of WWF, was exasperated after wading through the 56-page text of one of four documents on the agenda for voting later in the day.
Her main issue: How to raise ambitions to cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
'Instead, we're having a discussion about legal or legally binding? It raises the question, Why are we even here? The hardest issues are still on the table,' she said.
Around the Albert Luthuli International Convention Center in this Indian Ocean port city of 3.5 million people, coffee sellers packed up their stands and the race was on to buy up the last crumbs of food.
Yet still there was no time set for voting, and there was a possibility the talks could totally collapse and be continued in the new year. It happened once before, in 2000, and the result was the Kyoto Protocol that was nailed down in the 2001 follow-up.
'The only thing that can help now is a call by (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel to US President (Barack) Obama,' said Martin Kaiser, leader of climate policy at the German branch of Greenpeace.
Wishful thinking spawned by the frustration even sparked calls on the internet for apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, to call Obama and break the logjam.
Friday evening, in one of Mashabane's indabas - a special Zulu practice of bringing together wise people to make important decisions - India's Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan brought the audience to its feet with applause. Environmental activists described the meeting as 'heated.'
'India is asking for space for basic development for its people and poverty eradication. Is this an unreasonable demand?' Natarajan said in a closed session. The text was posted on an official Indian government website.
She was responding to an attack in the indaba by Canada, which along with Russia and Japan will not support a second period of Kyoto Protocol when it expires late next year.
Canada, the US, the European Union and other developed countries are demanding that China and India, the first and third largest carbon producers on earth, sign up for legally binding commitments to reduce emissions.
Under current Kyoto rules, China and India are excused from reductions as developing countries. The United States, the second largest carbon producer with 17 per cent, never ratified the treaty.
The United States was as usual the whipping boy of the convention for its foot dragging about a new, broader global agreement. Until now, its excuse was that its major economic rival China did not have to reduce costly emissions.
But European Union Commissioner on Climate Action Connie Hedegaard said Friday that a growing commitment by emerging economies to sign up for legally-binding carbon caps should convince the US to do the same.
Some environmentalists, like Lou Leonard of WWF, said that the final result of Durban could be like those in the past, when everyone ended up 'pointing their fingers at the US.'
The WWF's Smith in fact marvelled at the growing readiness of poor economies, who are suffering the most from severe drought and heavy floods blamed on global warming, to sign up for legally binding cuts.
'What people are missing is the big picture. Developing countries are at last willing to take on legally binding emission targets. That's a really big deal,' she said.
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