New climate talks end with no sign of consensus

Energy and environment ministers from the G8 group of industrialised countries and 12 other developed and developing nations met in Japan to continue discussions on this issue. This was the first ministerial meeting on climate since the UN talks in Bali last year.

Japan's environment minister Ichiro Kamoshita said governments reaffirmed the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility in negotiating the next deal for 2013 and onward," news agency AFP reports.

But divisions among governments remained deep, it seems. "It was made clear that there are a variety of positions among developed countries, emerging countries and developing countries," Mr Kamoshita stressed.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair called on governments to bridge their differences and announced a new initiative to try to work out the shape of a global agreement. Last year governments agreed to decide a new global climate policy by 2009.

"The difficult thing is: what type of deal?", Mr Blair said in a statement. He said his work will focus on outlining the principles that should underpin such a deal and on identifying the best way of transferring and financing the technologies needed to reduce global emissions.

Follow-up: Conference page http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/080307.html,  plus AFP report http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gu3UCNyDJvYCzwg_GQaFYveO-iSA,  and Mr Blair's statement http://tonyblairoffice.org/2008/03/tony-blair-launches-climate-ch.html .
© ENDS 17.03.08