New Zealand: Forget Kyoto, write new climate deal

DOHA, Qatar -- Highlighting a rift between the rich countries and emerging economies like China, New Zealand's climate minister staunchly defended his government's decision to drop out of the emissions pact for developed nations, saying it's an outdated and insufficient response to global warming.

Other key issues at the conference, now starting its second week, include how to help emerging nations switch to climate-friendly energy sources and charting the course for a new treaty that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which covers only developed countries.

New Zealand announced before the UN's climate talks started here last week that it would not take part in the second phase of the Kyoto treaty. That angered climate activists and stunned small neighboring island nations, who fear they could be submerged by rising sea levels spurred by global warming.

Climate Minister Tim Groser told The Associated Press on Sunday that New Zealand is "ahead of the curve" by shifting its attention from the 1997 Kyoto deal to a new global climate pact that would include developing nations.

The United States never ratified Kyoto, which expires this year, partly because it did not impose limits on China and other emerging economies.

Australia and European countries want to extend the pact at the current conference in Doha until a wider treaty comes into force. That is not scheduled to happen until 2020.

Groser didn't see a point in that, because those countries together represent less than 15 percent of global emissions.

"You cannot seriously argue you are dealing with climate change unless you start to tackle the 85 percent of emissions that are outside" the Kyoto pact, Groser said. "We're looking . . . now to where we think the real game is." Most emissions of heat-trapping gases that most climate scientists blame for rising global temperatures come from developing countries, with China the world's top emitter.

Beijing argues it must be allowed to increase its emissions as it economy expands, lifting millions of people out of poverty.

It also insists that Western nations bear a historical responsibility for climate change, since their fossil fuel factories spewed emissions into the atmosphere long before China started industrializing.

China therefore wants to retain the sharp division between rich and poor countries that has guided the slow-moving climate talks since they started two decades ago.