The United States will not announce binding emission targets at a historic climate change conference in Indonesia, despite growing pressure from developing countries to take the lead in combating global warming, according to AP. U.S. climate chief Harlan Watson, who earlier this week outlined how Washington is fighting climate change with technology, aid and economic growth, said Saturday Bali was not the place to be talking mandatory emission cuts. «We're not ready to do that here,» Watson said. Scientists say global emissions must be cut by 50 percent by 2050 to avoid dangerous warming that could result in worsening droughts, more severe storms and floods likely to impact tens of millions of people. The U.S. position is likely to dash hopes among developing countries that emission cuts of 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020 for industrialized countries would be included in a final agreement when the Bali conference ends Dec. 14. Those numbers were agreed upon earlier this year by industrialized nations that signed the Kyoto Protocol, which was rejected by the United States as too costly for the U.S. economy, and unfair because it excluded China, India and other developing economies. It commits three dozen industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gases an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels between next year and 2012, when the protocol expires. Despite the differences on how best to tackle global climate change, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said the first week of the conference had gone well, and he was optimistic they would come away with an agreement. «I've observed a strong willingness on the part of countries to get a successful outcome in Bali,» de Boer said. The debate over mandatory targets, however, seemed to be all the delegates wanted to talk about. China, which some believe has surpassed the United States as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, questioned the fairness of binding cuts when its per capita emissions are about one-sixth of America's. It said, too, that it has only been pumping pollutants into the atmosphere for a few decades, whereas the West has done so for hundreds of years. «China is in the process of industrialization and there is a need for economic growth to meet the basic needs of the people and fight against poverty,» said Su Wei, a top climate expert for the government and member of its delegation at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali. «I just wonder whether it's fair to ask developing countries like China to take on binding targets,» Su said Friday. «I think there is much room for the United States to think whether it's possible to change (its) lifestyle and consumption patterns in order to contribute to the protection of the global climate.» The chief U.N. climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, said it was next to impossible to expect the developing world to agree to cuts when their per capita emissions are so much less than the West. «What is absolutely essential is to see that the developed countries establish a record of action and commitment, which I think will induce and provide a moral basis for developing countries to assume the burden,» Pachauri said.
