Discussions on Climate Could Fail, Beijing Says

By WAN XU and JING YANG
BEIJING -- A senior Chinese climate-talks negotiator said efforts to broker a global climate-change deal may fail unless developed countries change their demands before a planned December summit in Copenhagen.
The comments by Lu Xuedu, deputy director of China's National Climate Center, added to fears that a growing divide between richer and poorer nations -- laid bare in preliminary talks in Bangkok several weeks ago -- is hurting prospects for an agreement.
"If the trend can't be turned around in the next round of meetings, I estimate the Copenhagen meeting can only fail," Mr. Lu said.
Mr. Lu pointed to the push by developed countries to discard the Kyoto Protocol and to set binding emission cut targets for developing countries as the most distressing message that emerged in the Bangkok round of talks. Under the Kyoto Protocol, whose mandated cuts expire in 2012, developed countries agreed to legally binding cuts, but the U.S. declined to ratify the treaty, and the limits didn't apply to developing countries.
"The developed countries sent out this message" that they are seeking binding cuts, Mr. Lu said. He called the message "shocking" and said it had angered developing countries.
Meanwhile, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama in a phone call that a climate deal had to include the terms covered by the Kyoto Protocol.
Negotiators from more than 180 countries have been struggling since last year to hammer out a framework for a new climate-control deal to be signed at the United Nations Copenhagen conference to be held Dec. 7-18.