Climate agenda agreed

CLIMATE negotiators agreed yesterday on an ambitious agenda for talks they hope will lead to a global warming pact to take effect from 2012, despite a heated dispute between Japan and the US on one side and developing countries on the other over how to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The schedule came after five days of talks in Bangkok and requires negotiators to settle contentions issues, including how the 163 countries present will cut their emissions and how rich nations will help the poor adapt to climate change.

Significant differences remain over demands from the US and Japan for developing countries to accept binding targets as part of a pact to stabilise greenhouse gases in the next 10 to 15 years and cut them in half by 2050.

The developing countries want rich countries to agree to set national targets first.

The draft schedule called for talks on the transfer of clean technologies from rich countries to developing ones at the June meeting in Bonn.

A meeting in Ghana in August will address the issue of deforestation.