Us Is 'key' To Unlocking Climate Deadlock, Iea Chief Says; Poznan Meeting Optimistic

摘要

The US is the key to unlocking the deadlock in UN climate change talks that seek to secure a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, although expectations are that the country could have little to negotiate at next year's meeting given the tight timeframe, the head of the International Energy Agency said last Wednesday. "The important thing everybody is talking about is how the US comes [to UN climate negotiations] under the new administration. That's the biggest element for the final conclusion of Copenhagen," IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in an interview at the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland. Tanaka said given that President-elect Barack Obama, a Democrat, takes office in January, it is unlikely that significant progress on a post-Kyoto deal will come out of the Poznan talks, which ran through Friday. International negotiators will instead focus on hammering out a broad negotiating framework for the December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen given they have little clarity on what the US might bring to the table next year.