UN process under fire at climate change talks

Climate change negotiations remain in the mire after the first meeting since Copenhagen showed rich and poor countries are still not ready to trust each other.

By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 9:00AM BST 10 Apr 2010
More than 180 countries are gathered in Bonn to discuss a way forward after the last United Nations meeting in the Danish capital ended in chaos.
But initial talks ended in recriminations and there was little progress on deciding the best way to stop global warming.

All countries agree greenhouse gases must be cut in order to stop catastrophic climate change, the question is how to do it.
At the heart of the problem is the failure to even agree the best way to draw up an agreement.
Developing countries suggested the world should be meeting every month in order to ensure a treaty is signed by the end of the year.
They felt that Copenhagen was dominated by larger rich countries meeting "behind closed doors" rather than involving the whole of the United Nations.
Tosi Mpanu Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of Congo, representing African nations, said Copenhagen damaged "the trust that is necessary for any partnership".
"The one thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history," he said.
However the Mexican delegation, that is in charge of the next major summit in Cancun at the end of the year where any final treaty would be signed, is already suggesting alternatives.
The suggestion, where smaller groups meet to thrash out particular issues and then report to the full meeting for approval, has already been dubbed the "Mexican process".
Fernando Tudela, Mexico's vice minister for planning and environmental policy, said modernisation would allow sticking points to be worked out much more quickly.
"We need to improve our working methods," he said. "This process of negotiations requires adjustment and modernisation without of course using different practises that are used in the United Nations."
Already there are plans for meetings outside the UN process to try and speed things along.
The Major Economies Forum, the world's 17 major economies accounting for the bulk of carbon emissions, will meet later this month in Washington to discuss the best way to cut greenhouse gases. Germany has also invited some 50 environment ministers to a conference in May.
Alicia Montalvo, the Spanish delegate speaking for the European Union (EU), said smaller groups must be allowed to move the process forward.
"We cannot go back to business as usual," she said.
Wendel Trio of Greenpeace said different nations remain at loggerheads over the best way to progress the talks.
But he was hopeful that by the end of the meeting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), that is in charge of the process, manages to agree on a couple more meetings before Cancun and the key subject matter that must be worked on before the end of the year.