Decision on warming expected in Durban

DURBAN, South Africa -- The UN's top climate official said yesterday she expects governments to make a long-delayed decision on whether industrial countries should make further commitments to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Amid fresh warnings of climate-related disasters in the future, delegates from about 190 countries were gathering in Durban for a two-week conference beginning today. They hope to break deadlocks on how to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

Christiana Figueres, head of the UN climate secretariat, said the stakes for the negotiations are high, underscored by new scientific studies.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a hero of the movement that ended apartheid in South Africa, and Pope Benedict XVI, sometimes called the "green pope," separately urged negotiators yesterday to be more ambitious during what were expected to be difficult talks.

Hopes were scrapped for an overall treaty governing global carbon emissions after the collapse of talks at a climate summit in Copenhagen two years ago. The "big bang" approach has been replaced by incremental efforts to build new institutions to help shift the global economy from carbon-intensive energy generation, industries and transportation to more climate-friendly technologies.

An underlying division between rich and poor countries on the future of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has stymied the negotiators. The Kyoto accord calls on 37 wealthy nations to reduce carbon emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by the end of next year. But wealthy countries, with growing consensus, say they cannot carry the burden alone and want rapidly developing countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa to slow their emissions growth and move toward low-carbon economies.

Figueres said she hoped for an extension of emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto accord, which has been postponed for two years. Previous commitments expire next year.

High on the conference agenda is the management of a fund scaling up over the next eight years to $100 billion annually to help poor countries cope with changing climate conditions.

Questions remain on how the money will be governed and distributed -- and how those funds can be generated from sources beyond established channels in the West. Ideas on the table include a carbon surcharge on international shipping and air tickets and a levy on international financial transactions.