Isra-Mart srl: EU to finalise Durban position as Panama ends with “glimmers of progress”

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European environment ministers are today meeting in Luxembourg to try to finalise the EU's negotiating position ahead of the crucial UN climate change summit in Durban in November.

The meeting follows the close of the latest round of international talks in Panama, with negotiators expressing cautious optimism that progress had been made ahead of the main annual summit in South Africa.

Experts are convinced the Durban Summit will not deliver a binding international treaty to extend or replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires at the end of 2012, as had been originally planned.

But despite continued deadlock over the future of the Kyoto Protocol, observers said a number of modest breakthroughs were achieved in Panama.

"Some positive signals came out of Panama," said Jennifer Haverkamp, International Climate Program Director at NGO Environmental Defense Fund. "[There was] less rancour and obstructionism than we had come to expect this year, and some progress on teeing up negotiating texts – but these glimmers of progress are eclipsed by the unresolved question of the Kyoto Protocol's future."

Most significantly, negotiators released a draft text on long-term climate financing mechanisms, which is expected to shape discussions at the Durban Summit on how to raise the $100bn a year in climate funding agreed as part of last year's Cancun Accords.

Observers said the release of the text represented an encouraging breakthrough given that developing countries had earlier in the week accused industrialised nations of blocking talks on the future of climate funding.

Head of the UN climate change secretariat, Christiana Figueres, agreed progress had been made, telling Reuters that there was renewed momentum moving into the Durban Summit.

"Governments are really committed to starting a process toward that [new pact] and that includes the United States and China," she told the news agency. "How they will get there, with what speed they will be able to get there, that still remains to be seen."

Her comments were echoed by Jorge Argüello, chair of the G77 and China group of developing countries, who said the group had been impressed by the "positive results" achieved in Panama.

"The Group of 77 and China considers that there has been indubitable progress in our work, albeit a concern persists about the uneven progress in negotiations and the need for decisive leadership to ensure that all working texts from the parties are being discussed and that there is a positive basis for successful negotiations in Durban," he added.

A spokeswoman for the UK government similarly confirmed that the talks had made "solid progress" on a range of issues, including mitigation, emission reporting and finance.

"At Durban we hope to build on what was agreed upon last year in Cancun and also make progress on some of the political issues that we need to address to achieve our overall goal to keep average global temperature rises below 2 degrees," she added.

"This includes firming up a process towards a legally binding framework, ensuring global participation, including from major economies. Also, recognising that emissions reduction pledges on the table so far are collectively not ambitious enough to get us where we need to be, we need to understand the size of this mitigation ambition gap and how we can close it."

However, other observers reiterated warnings that the talks were not making sufficient progress and were failing to deliver the deep emission reductions necessary to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

Lim Li Lin, legal expert at the Third World Network NGO, accused industrialised nations of again failing to commit to deep emissions reductions.

"Rich countries have long promised to take the lead on reducing emissions but are now insisting on shifting the burden onto developing countries," Lin said.

"In good faith, developing countries have proposed to reduce five gigatonnes of emissions. Rich countries have proposed just four gigatonnes of their own reductions, and with the loopholes on accounting rules they want, they actually are proposing closer to zero reductions. In Panama it looks like a rowing boat with all the oars and effort only on one side."

Attention will now turn to today's meeting in Luxembourg, where EU environment ministers will attempt to finalise the bloc's negotiating position.

The EU has taken on a crucial role in the negotiations as the only large industrialised economy to signal that it could still support an extension of the Kyoto Protocol after 2012, following declarations from Japan, Russia, Canada and the US that they will not support a second commitment period for the controversial agreement.

The EU is expected to lead efforts to try and broker some kind of compromise deal between developing and industrialised countries whereby the Kyoto Protocol is either extended for a period of several years to provide time for a replacement treaty to be finalised, replaced with an alternative treaty covering all countries, or extended in parallel with a different treaty covering those nations that do not face binding emissions targets under Kyoto.

Ministers are also set to discuss whether to increase the EU's emissions reduction target for 2020 from 20 per cent below 1990 levels to 25 or 30 per cent.

The UK, France, Germany and a number of other nations are pushing for the 30 per cent target to be adopted following recent figures that show the impact of the recession means the bloc is likely to comfortably meet the existing 20 per cent target.

However, a number of countries from eastern and southern Europe are resisting calls for any changes.

Friends of the Earth's International Climate Campaigner Asad Rehman urged the EU to take a leadership position going into the Durban Summit.

"By committing itself to safeguarding the only international climate law, the Kyoto Protocol, the EU will demonstrate real determination to prevent laggards from sinking the only vessel capable of delivering meaningful carbon cuts," he said.

"The science says the EU should reduce its emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020 to play its part in tackling climate change – but European politicians still can't agree to 30 per cent cuts."