United Nations Radio

The latest round of UN-led negotiations on reaching a global climate change deal next year, has drawn more than 10,000 participants to the city of Poznan in Poland.

The two-week meeting of the parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change is the halfway mark on the road to a major summit in Copenhagen in 2009, at which countries hope to reach agreement on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions reductions for after 2012. Bissera Kostova has more on this.

NARR: The UN climate change talks in Poznan focused Tuesday on how rich countries can help poorer nations curb emissions of global-warming gases. The head of the Climate Change Convention Secretariat, Yvo de Boer says many of the technologies that would enable this are already at our disposal, according to the International Panel on Climate Change.

De Boer 3: The IPCC already .... indicated that we can reduce global emissions by 20 to 30% simply through 'no regrets' measures, through measures that pay themselves back out of a lower electricity bill within two to three years.

NARR:Providing so-called clean technology to emerging nations like China and India -- and how to pay for it -- is a major sticking point at this meeting.

De Boer 4: Many countries have emphasized that the work here in Poznan really should concentrate on how to move forward on industrialized countries' commitments ... what are industrialized countries willing to do in the next round, what tools do they need to deploy to that end in order to be able to show a maximum of ambition ...

NARR: Technology is needed both to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions, or capturing them, and to help countries adapt to the unavoidable effects of climate change.

De Boer 2: Designing a response to climate change that measures up to what the scientific community tells us is necessary is inconceivable without technology ... being at the heart of that strategy, and I think that countries broadly agree that the current arrangements that we have for technology transfer, for technology cooperation, to leverage technology into the market are insufficient.

NARR:Mr. De Boer says funding for research and development has been decreasing and there are also barriers to the private sector adopting new technologies to curb climate change, so this also needs to be leveraged with public funds. There are also concerns about spillover effects, he says.

De Boer 5: For example, the concern that many oil producing countries have - the concern that action on climate change will negatively impact oil revenue and oil sales which are critical to the economy of those developing countries; many developing countries who are concerned that products that they bring onto the international market, could potentially be penalized because of the carbon foot print that those products have. For example, if you take a tomato from Africa to Europe and you look at the carbon footprint of that process, could that potentially through climate change policies have a negative impact on the products that developing countries make.

NARR: In order to meet the deadline to have an agreement by the end of next year, at this meeting countries have to move into negotiating mode, according to Mr. De Boer. The goal is to have an agreement in Copenhagen that countries will embrace and ratify.

Producer: Bissera Kostova

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