US would not consider conditional ‘climate deal’ for developing nations

The US would not be prepared to acknowledge a “genuinely binding” climate deal if it failed to recognize the larger emerging economies or if US and other developed nations had to financially support them as part of the deal, according to the country’s lead climate negotiator.

Todd Stern, special climate change envoy for the US , announced that he would not back any such agreement that wouldn’t apply, “equal legal force to major developing countries” such as India, Brazil and China. The US has been warned by its lawmakers that an extension to the Kyoto Protocol, in its current state, would have no legally-binding commitment for developing countries. “You can't just go forward with a new legal agreement that is based on the same exact structure,” said Stern, adding that he felt developing countries were actively seeking means of financial support from developed countries in order to have their own emission reduction targets reduced.

Stern was speaking after the outcome of the Major Economies Forum (MEF), which was attended by the 17 biggest polluting nations in the world today. The meeting was a chance for preliminary discussions on the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which ends next year, and whether it had a chance of being extended or replaced by a newly agreed treaty.

A decision on the future of the Kyoto Protocol is something that the U.N.'s top climate change official says cannot be avoided with COP 17 in Durban fast approaching. “There has to be a clear decision as to how the global collective effort - not only of industrialized countries - but how the global collective effort to reduce emissions will go forward and how that will be done in a transparent manner, with greater ambition growing over time," Christiana Figueres said at a UN press conference on Monday.