(Corrects year in paragraph 5 to 2008 from 2007) * Time running out for Dec. 7-18 deal * Copenhagen "unique window of opportunity" - de Boer By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The world must overcome differences about fighting climate change and agree a U.N. pact in December without leaving any more than details for 2010, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Wednesday. Rejecting suggestions that some major decisions may be delayed into 2010, Yvo de Boer said the Dec. 7-18 conference in Copenhagen was a "unique window of opportunity" for a deal including deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by rich nations. "Time is running out," he told a telephone news conference of sluggish progress in talks launched in 2007. The last set of 190-nation talks before Copenhagen is set for Barcelona, Spain, from Nov. 2-6. "I believe that Copenhagen can and must agree the political essentials" for a strong long-term response to global warming, said de Boer, head of the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat. "After Copenhagen we will need a technical process in order to work out all the details," he said. He noted that he had been saying since U.N. talks in Poland in December 2008 that a full international treaty would be impossible for Copenhagen. But some nations say negotiations will be needed in 2010, partly because the U.S. Senate looks unlikely to agree climate legislation before the meeting in the Danish capital. Others may be reluctant to set cuts without Washington. "What has to be absolutely clear is that we do not have another year to sit on our hands until Mexico," where the next annual U.N. talks are due after Copenhagen, de Boer said. INDIVIDUAL CUTS "It is absolutely essential that the Copenhagen agreement specifies individual emissions reduction targets for industrialised countries," he said. A rich-poor dispute about the depth of cuts is among elements blocking a Copenhagen deal. De Boer said rich nations could set goals without full clarity from Washington. He noted that U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern had said the world does not need a crystal ball to work out the likely U.S. level of greenhouse gas cuts. A U.S. Senate committee is holding hearings this week on a Democratic plan that would force U.S. utilities, factories and refineries to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020, putting them about 7 percent below 1990 levels. Developing nations led by China and India want rich nations to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of droughts, floods, wildfires, sandstorms and rising sea levels. De Boer said developing nations also had to slow the rise of their emissions as part of a deal. Other vital elements in Copenhagen were agreement on aid and technology to help the poor cope with global warming and ways to govern finances. He said a European Union summit on Oct. 29-30 could help clarify finances. He said he was encouraged by a call from Britain for annual up-front financing of 10 billion euros ($14.84 billion) in the short term. "All industrialised countries need to provide clarity on the financial support they will provide," he said. "We absolutely have to get clarity on the short-term financing" in Copenhagen, he said. "The second thing I am looking for is an agreed burden-sharing formula by how funds will be generated in the longer term."
Oxfam activists hold a poster surrounded by the art installation of 200 shoe-box sized tents symbolizes the dramatic consequences of climate change in developing countries in front of the Brandenburg gate ...
