Global Carbon-Emissions Accord Unlikely in 2010, Japan, EU says

A global accord to limit emissions is unlikely in 2010 and officials shouldn’t raise expectations for a deal, Japanese and European Union delegates said.

“We will not likely have in Cancun a comprehensive legal agreement,” Jos Delbeke, director-general of climate action for the European Commission, said today at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit in London.

In November the most senior climate negotiators from more than 190 nations will meet in Cancun, Mexico, almost one year after they failed in Copenhagen to craft a treaty that bridged gaps between demands of industrialized and poorer countries over sharing the burden to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Instead, U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders from China, Brazil, India and South Africa forged a voluntary agreement at the United Nations talks in the Danish capital to limit carbon-dioxide output, known as the Copenhagen Accord. They invited others to sign on, and about 100 nations did so.

The deal, which sets no binding caps on gas discharges, aims to keep the global temperature increase since industrialization to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Let’s not make the mistake of Copenhagen,” Delbeke said.

The Copenhagen outcome fell short of requests by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, Duke Energy Corp. and other companies that had called on the UN delegates to deliver guidelines in Denmark on emissions to help them plan investments and strategy.

Those expectations, as well as demands from developing countries for money for forest protection and development, may have been too high, said Japan’s Kunihiko Shimada.

“We shouldn’t raise too high the expectations for Cancun,” said Shimada, principal international negotiator at the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.

Delegates will first meet this year for preliminary talks in Bonn in May.