Fears are mounting that the latest round of international climate talks could once again end in deadlock, as diplomats gathered in Bangkok reportedly clashed on a number of different fronts.
The latest round of talks are meant to prepare the ground for the next major climate change summit in Doha, Qatar, at the end of the year, where countries are expected to agree an extension to the Kyoto Protocol before it lapses at the end of the year and the roadmap to deliver a new legally-binding treaty, which is scheduled to be agreed by 2015 and brought into effect by 2020.
The week-long Bangkok talks have been split into three working groups: one focused on extending the Kyoto Protocol; one known as Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA), which is focused on climate funding, adaptation, and technology transfer mechanisms; and one focused on the Durban Platform agreement reached last year, which pledges to deliver a new legally-binding treaty.
However, according to various reports the working groups have again seen repeated clashes between rich and poor nations, raising fears the meeting will mirror the previous round of talks in Bonn earlier this year, where diplomats and campaigners were left frustrated by a serious lack of progress that threatens to undermine the crucial Doha summit at the end of the year.
Questions remain over which industrialised countries will sign up to an extended version of the Kyoto Protocol, despite the fact the treaty, which provides the legal foundations for a number global carbon trading mechanisms, is due to lapse at the end of the year.
