GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

De Boer Pessimistic on Climate Deal in 2010

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer says he's doubtful about a worldwide treaty this year on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Yvo de Boer, who is resigning his post in July, says there's not enough time to recover from disagreements among industrialized and emerging nations that scuttled a binding pact at December's summit in Copenhagen.  He spoke on the sidelines of an annual U.N. conference of environmental ministers in Bali, Indonesia.

"I think Copenhagen demonstrated that sometimes if you try and go too quickly, you actually achieve less progress," de Boer told The Associated Press in an interview.

The next chance for a worldwide deal comes in December 2010, when more than 190 nations reconvene in Cancun, Mexico.

But de Boer says the participants need more time to set up a framework of steps to mitigate the effects of rising levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, and to establish a financial and climate change aid system that can convince developing countries to support a new deal. He says the focus should shift toward next year's summit in South Africa and for an agreement before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

"The first priority is to rebuild confidence and trust in the process," de Boer said. He added that developing countries need incentives that will allow them to act on climate change but also keep developing economically.

"If you can't show that there are real advantages, then it will never happen," he said.

De Boer says his resignation had nothing to do with the outcome of the Copenhagen meeting.  He says he was encouraged that countries pledged to provide financial aid that will help poor countries adapt to climate change.  He urged the immediate dispersal of those funds, which start at $30 billion over the next three years and will be scaled up to $100 billion a year by 2020.

But Karl Falkenberg, the E.U. Commission's director-general of environment, says the money can't be disbursed in the absence of any binding agreement on greenhouse gas emission cuts.

"If the international community cannot find any kind of agreement, then it's going to be very difficult to put this into effect," Falkenberg said.