March 28, 2008
BANGKOK - World climate negotiators will next week meet in Bangkok to save the Earth from the global warming.
The five-day meeting will start on Monday in Bangkok. It is aimed at pushing for a detailed work plan which should lead to global warming battling.
Meeting for the first time since marathon talks in December on the Indonesian island of Bali, members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will try to thrash out differences that almost derailed their last gathering.
"I hope that Bangkok is a very practical meeting, that is focused on what it is supposed to focus on, which is to agree a work programme for the next year and a half," UNFCCC head Yvo de Boer told AFP by phone from Switzerland.
The United States has never ratified the Kyoto deal.
Now in Bangkok, nations should produce a specific plan "outlining who does what, when and why," John Hay, the UNFCCC's spokesman said. "Generally the mood is quite constructive, much more constructive than it was at Bali."
Europe and developing countries want rich nations to cut emissions by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020.
The crucial question of emissions will likely dominate negotiations leading up to the final December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen.
But activists warned that no agreement on the issue would come out of the Bangkok talks.
The UNFCCC currently has 192 member nations. Government negotiators from at least 150 countries are expected to come to Bangkok.
