A compromise reached Friday at a UN-sponsored climate conference in Vienna was somewhat watered down from its initial form, reflecting opposition by a group of countries to nailing down specific emission-cut targets in the battle against global warming, participants said according to DPA. Delegates struggled until late Friday evening to reach consensus on whether to present non-binding targets that set specific quantities for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to the upcoming climate conference in Bali, Indonesia in December. A recommendation for "useful initial parameters" was adopted that would cut greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, to help policy makers in their assessment, after prolonged resistance from a group of countries including Japan, Canada, Russia, Switzerland and New Zealand. At the week-long meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC,) delegates from more than 100 states were laying the groundwork for negotiations on climate control after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. The adopted document suggested that industrialized countries could adopt more ambitious targets, and that mitigation measures depended on "national circumstances." You cannot expect two countries to make exactly the same commitments," UNFCCC head Yvo de Boer said. But more needed to be done by the global community, de Boer said. There was large potential for emission reduction in developing countries. Nonetheless, de Boer believed some momentum for the Bali conference had been created. "Bali has the responsibility to show states that governments are serious to address this very important problem," de Boer told reporters earlier on Friday. Participating non-governmental organizations welcomed the agreement, despite its being watered down. "We have a clear message from most governments," a WWF activist said at a press briefing afterwards by the NGOs. The official noted that even those initially reluctant "had seen the light" in the end. The environmentalists warned that talks had to be sped up to be effective.
