NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) — Both rich and poor nations must commit to slashing greenhouse gas emissions if the world wants to solve global warming, Australia's trade minister said Saturday at a landmark climate change summit.
As the first week of the conference trying to lay the groundwork for a new climate change pact drew to a close, delegates in Indonesia's Bali appeared divided on the way forward to curb carbon dioxide emissions.
"We said during the election campaign that developing countries needed to make commitments ... and that is a position that we will be bringing to this conference," said Simon Crean, who was sworn in as Australia's trade minister after Kevin Rudd led Labor to victory in last month's elections.
Japan and Canada are reported to be pushing for booming developing nations such as India and China -- set to become the world's major polluters -- to commit to binding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming.
But Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change, under which countries are meeting, said such demands were not likely to be met when governments were trying to pull their citizens out of poverty.
"Developing countries have made it very clear that it is inconceivable for them to accept legally binding targets," he told reporters.
The European Union, poorer countries led by China, and environmental activists are urging the rich world to commit to reducing their polluting emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020.
Crean said Australia was not going to sign up to any binding commitments on battling climate change until they had the results of a report commissioned by Rudd's climate change economic specialist, expected next year.
"Australia has said that we understand that if we're to solve this problem we're going to have to commit to targets," he said, adding that the new government would lay out its pledges "at the appropriate time".
Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 deal on battling climate change, in his first official act after being sworn in as prime minister.
The move reversed the policy of the previous Howard government, a key US ally, which declined to sign up.
The current US administration has stressed that it will not sign up to any mandatory emissions cuts targets that hamper economic growth.
Environmental groups are pushing for emissions cuts to appear in the final text when the Bali summit ends on December 14, and de Boer said such an inclusion "would hugely improve the clarity of the message".
An umbrella of environmental groups on Saturday accused the Canadian delegation of trying to spoil the climate negotiations with its stance.
"Canada is driving a tar sands truck right through the middle of the negotiations here in Bali," said Steven Guilbeault, from ecological group Equiterre.
"The Kyoto Protocol is built on the recognition that industrialised countries are largely responsible for the problem of climate change, and must take the lead in tackling it."
Delegates from more than 180 countries are currently in Bali to hammer out a timeframe for a new deal on tackling climate change when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Environment ministers will arrive in Bali at the end of next week, while trade and finance ministers and representatives have begun gathering on the sidelines of the summit.
But de Boer warned that the number of issues on the table might hamper talks.
"What worries me a little bit is that too many issues are going to slip into the high-level segment, and that ministers will have too much on their plate, and a very limited time with which to reach a conclusion," he said.
Elsewhere on Bali Saturday, police said about 500 activists carrying effigies and banners marched in the main town of Denpasar, calling for action from the summit.
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