BALI, Indonesia - About 190 nations meet on the Indonesian island of Bali from Monday to build on a "fragile understanding" that the fight against global warming needs to be expanded to all nations with a deal in 2009.
The December 3-14 talks, involving more than 10,000 delegates in a tightly guarded idyllic beach resort, will seek to launch negotiations meant to end with a U.N. new pact in two years' time including outsiders led by the United States and China.
So far, only 36 industrialised nations in the Kyoto Protocol have caps on greenhouse gas emissions running to 2012. However, bleak U.N. reports this year warning of more heatwaves, droughts and rising seas have said global curbs are needed fast.
But working out a fair share of curbs on emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, between rich countries and poor nations led by China and India will be a huge puzzle.
"We heard no dispute that developed countries need to keep taking the lead," wrote Howard Bamsey of Australia and Sandea De Wet of South Africa in a report after a set of U.N. talks reviewing new ways to fight climate change since 2005.
They said there was agreement more needed to be done, but disagreement about how. Some countries were willing to make deeper cuts in emissions, others said existing promises should be kept and still others wanted incentives to join in.
"More discussions will be needed to build on this fragile understanding and explore how it can be put into practice," they wrote in a report to be submitted in Bali.
BUSH
Prospects for a global deal have been boosted by a decision by President George W. Bush for the United State to take part beyond 2012. Bush opposes Kyoto as a threat to U.S. economic growth and said it unfairly excluded goals for poor nations.
