Bali Island, Indonesia - UN climate chief Yvo de Boer expressed concern Thursday that sticking points are slowing negotiations to reach an agreement at the UN climate conference in Bali. Some delegations have attached different topics together and said an agreement made on one item is dependent on concessions of another topic, de Boer said at a news briefing in Bali.
It is becoming an "all or nothing" situation, said the UN climate chief. If this house of cards collapses, warned de Boer, there will be no clarity over the continuation of world-wide negotiations for the protection of the climate.
Environment organizations are pointing fingers at the US for torpedoing progress.
Delegates, trying to forge a Bali roadmap to launch negotiation and are wrangling over whether to mention scientific evidence of the need for emissions cuts in the range of 25 to 40 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2020 as part of the guidelines for the talks.
On Wednesday, the US reiterated its rejection to the inclusion of any figures in the roadmap, saying the Bali roadmap should not anticipate the outcome of the future talks, according to Paula Dobriansky, head of the US delegation.
The US position stands in counterpoint to other countries and the European Union, which wants the Bali roadmap to include the numbers into the guidelines.
De Boer called on the delegates from more than 150 countries to come to a consensus by Friday noon, the end of the conference.
