World leaders led by President-elect Barack Obama may be needed to help agree even a modest U.N. climate treaty in 2009 after a rift deepened between rich and poor nations over funds and new goals to cut emissions.
About 190 nations aim to work out a new treaty by mid-December 2009 but two weeks of preparatory talks in Poland ended on Saturday with developing nations accusing the rich of doing too little to help them cope with impacts such as droughts, floods, disease and rising seas.
“Poznan achieved what it was supposed to but it ended on a rather grim note,” Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters after countries including Brazil and India faulted the rich for a lack of generosity.
“It’s a worrying sign that people are taking up positions for a hard negotiation,” he said of the sour closing session.
The Poznan talks, attended by environment ministers to review progress halfway through a two-year push for a new treaty, showed that more than half the work remained to be done.
