U.N. Urges Progress On Climate Talks Ahead Of U.S. Election

United Nations committee chairman said Monday that wealthy countries should not wait until the new U.S. president is elected before moving forward on agreements for aggressive 2020 greenhouse gas reductions.

Norwegian Harald Dovland, who heads the U.N.’s meetings about new commitments for Kyoto countries, said that despite uncertainty in U.S. policies, rich countries should proceed in working through the details of a new agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol during upcoming talks in Accra, Ghana on August 21-27.

"Many of the developed industrialized countries are not very keen on coming forward with strong commitments post-2012 without knowing what the U.S. is doing," said Dovland during an interview with Reuters.

"We could do some practical good work at this stage," he said.

Last year, more than 190 nations agreed to establish a new global warming treaty by the end of 2009. The new initiative would aim to limit rising temperatures that could cause droughts, heatwaves, floods and rising seas.

Both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama and have said they would enact stricter climate policies if they are elected president. Kyoto was rejected by George W. Bush, who said the agreement was too costly and did not include goals for developing nations.

According to Dovland, the 37 countries with Kyoto emissions limits agreed last year to a non-binding goal of reducing emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, to levels less than those in 1990.

However, few countries have spoken openly of such aggressive reductions. The European Union has said it will reduce emissions by 20 percent, or by 30 percent if others follow suit, one of the most aggressive targets.

"If I could be the dictator of the world it would come out as minus 30 -- that would be what we should aim for 2020," Dovland said.

"But as you know I am not the dictator of the world," he said, adding that he hoped to resume discussions during a December meeting in Poland.

"My hope is to see if we can make it a little more binding," he said.

The Kyoto Protocol now mandates emission cuts of an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The agreement mainly targets emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants, cars and factories. A separate group outside of Dovland’s is reviewing goals for outsiders, including the U.S., India and China.

Dovland said he hoped the Ghana discussions, the third meeting this year, would make progress on new rules for a Kyoto scheme under which rich nations would reduce emissions in developing countries through investment in alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power. These steps could then be used to claim credits at home. The talks will also look at the details of such an agreement, including the role of the forestry sector and whether to allow credits for nuclear power.