December 10, 2007	Monday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1428

NUSA DUA (Indonesia), Dec 9: Climate change campaigners called on Sunday for greater effort in the fight against global warming, saying the world was waiting for a crunch UN conference in Bali to produce a breakthrough.

Prominent figures including Nobel-winning former US vice-president Al Gore and UN chief Ban Ki-moon are due to arrive on the Indonesian resort island in the coming days as the climate change summit enters its crucial final week.

“The whole year has been pointing at the Bali process,” said John Coequyt, a climate campaigner from Greenpeace.

“We have been here for a week now and there is not a lot of difference in discussion, tone and energy from previous summits. Things are going to have to change when ministers get here.” Government delegates from about 190 nations are here for the 11-day summit under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Their goal is to lay the groundwork for a new international initiative that will help combat the threat posed by climate change after the current phase of the existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012.

Scientists earlier this year delivered their starkest warning yet – that without action, global warming could have an irreversible impact on the world, bringing hunger, floods, drought and the extinction of many plants and animal species in its wake.

“I will say (to ministers), the world is waiting – what is your political answer to what science is telling you?” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC.

He has warned that the number of issues for ministers to discuss when they start meeting on Wednesday could clog up talks, and said countries should focus on finalising a timetable for further negotiations up to 2009, when they need to begin ratifying any agreement.

A key question is how much rich countries – which leading experts say are historically responsible for most of the carbon emissions blamed for warming the planet – should commit to slashing their output.

Europe and developing countries led by China want industrialised nations to set a binding target to cut such emissions by between 25 to 40 per cent by 2020 over their 1990 levels.

Canada and Japan are reported to be in favour of fixed targets for booming economies like India and China as well, although de Boer said such a prospect was “inconceivable”. Delegates from impoverished nations want rich countries to increase funding and transfer technology that will help them adapt.—AFP