Latin bloc scolds rich countries at climate talks

By KARL RITTER, Associated Press

CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -A bloc of Latin American countries issued a stern warning to rich nations Friday that unless they commit to new emissions cuts, the U.N. climate talks in Cancun will fail.

Negotiators from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador - all members of the leftist ALBA alliance - said they would not accept the refusal by some developed countries to extend their binding emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol, the climate pact that expires in 2012.

Venezuela and Bolivia were among a handful of countries that blocked a nonbinding climate accord with voluntary emissions pledges from being adopted at last year's U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. The rules of the talks require consensus.

Without naming them, Venezuelan negotiator Claudia Salerno said "a handful" of developed countries had ruled out a second commitment period under Kyoto. She called their stance "unacceptable" and said it could hold back progress on other issues being discussed in Cancun.

"If there is no second period of Kyoto, it is very difficult that there can be any balanced package" of decisions in Cancun, Salerno said.

The fate of the Kyoto Protocol, or the shape of any agreement that succeeds it, is one of the most divisive issues in the negotiations.

Earlier this week Japan said it was not interested in negotiating an extension of the Kyoto targets, arguing it was pointless unless the world's largest polluters - China is No. 1, and the U.S. No. 2 - also accepted binding targets. U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said Russia and Canada also oppose extending their Kyoto targets.

For 13 years, since it was negotiated, the United States has rejected the Kyoto accord, partly because it made no demands on rapidly developing countries like China and India.

Venezuela and Bolivia and other members of the ALBA bloc argue that climate change is the result of a capitalist system and demand steep emissions cuts from industrialized countries deemed to have a historical responsibility for the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

Figueres said she wasn't expecting the positions of the ALBA nations and the developed countries to "dramatically change" in Cancun.

"What needs to happen here is countries need to find a compromise," she said.

She and other U.N. officials hope for agreements on secondary issues at Cancun, and expect this central dispute to extend into next year's negotiations.

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Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

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