At Buenos Aires Climate Summit, US Open To "Informal Discussions"

[hatrack]

"The United States is open to holding "informal gatherings" to discuss climate change as long as they do not pave the way to post-Kyoto Protocol negotiations, a US official said here Friday at a major UN conference on climate change. Argentina proposed this week that two "seminars" be held next year ahead of formal talks in November 2005 to address greenhouse gas emissions policy after the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012.

The European Union's representative here, Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands, said the EU was very favorable to Argentina's proposal. But US senior climate negotiator Harlan Watson, repeating a statement he made earlier this week, said it was premature to begin post-Kyoto talks. "We've participated in the past in a number of informal gatherings," Watson told AFP, adding that "they can be very useful" to exchange information about climate change.

EDIT

Post-Kyoto talks are expected to take center-stage when more than 90 environment minister from across the world come here for the gathering's last three days, December 15-17.

In an event organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on the sidelines of the conference, people from India, Nepal, Fiji and Argentina testified on the negative effects of climate change in their countries. Anil Krishna Mistry, a conservationist from India, said sea water has invaded agricultural fields in the Ganges river delta, while Nepal's Norbu Sherpa warned that glaciers in the Himalayas were receding."

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http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041211020237.80g8nklo.html

[rfkrfk]

1. This is BS, from shrub

The EU should take its demands directly to the
people of the US.
Stop goofing around.