FACTBOX-Bali U.N. climate talks and goals

Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:04am EST

Dec 13 (Reuters) - A 190-nation U.N. climate meeting in Bali from Dec 3-14 is seeking to launch two years of formal negotiations meant to end with agreement on a broad new U.N. pact to fight global warming.

About 10,000 delegates on the Indonesian island are considering a draft document laying out a "roadmap" of guiding principles for the talks on a U.N. treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Kyoto sets caps on emissions of greenhouse gases for industrial 37 nations until 2012. The United States rejected the pact in 2001 and developing nations led by China and India have no targets. A new treaty would seek to involve all.

Following are details of a draft text on Thursday:

HOW AMBITIOUS?

The United States, the only rich outside the Kyoto Protocol which caps greenhouse gases, has opposed in Bali any target range of greenhouse gas emissions cuts. It has support from Japan and Canada but the European Union wants a range.

The new draft says "much deeper cuts in emissions" by rich nations will be needed. Trying to skirt the EU-U.S. dispute, it notes that Kyoto countries want all rich nations to be guided by cuts in greenhouse gases by 25-40 percent by 2020 below 1990 levels.

The new draft notes that the toughest category assessed by the U.N. Climate Panel requires global emissions of greenhouse gases to peak in the next 10 to 15 years and be reduced to very low levels, "well below half of 2000 levels by 2050."



RICH AND POOR

The draft calls on rich countries to consider "quantified national emission limitation and reduction commitments".

Meanwhile, developing countries should consider "measureable and reportable national mitigation actions." That is a weaker demand than in the original draft for poor nations to "limit the growth of, or reduce, emissions". Emissions-cutting measures in developing nations could include slowing deforestation.

POLICIES

Developing nations want clean technologies to help them curb greenhouse gas emissions, and they feel that rich countries have short-changed them on a commitment to provide such help under the 1992 Convention on Climate Change.

The new draft asks parties to consider "cooperation on research and development of new and innovative technology". It also calls for more finance and investment to support adaptation to climate change -- another key demand of developing nations.

LAUNCH OF NEW TALKS

The draft lays out three options:

1) Two years of informal talks that do not necessarily lead to a new treaty.

-- This option has had support from few countries such as Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.

2) Two separate sets of talks, ending with a global deal to be adopted at U.N. talks in Copenhagen in late 2009. One set would be new targets for 37 Kyoto industrial nations, another for outsiders such as the United States and developing nations.

-- Most countries support this option. China, however, wants to give Kyoto outsiders until 2010 to agree, saying that a new U.S. president will take office only in January 2009, and many countries want to know Washington's policies first.

3) An immediate merger of the Kyoto and the international talks to produce a deal in 2009.

-- Most countries that prefer this approach equally support option 2.

TIMETABLE

The first talks will be held no later than April 2008. That meeting would work out a detailed timetable.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Writing by Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle; Reuters messaging: