UN talks support clean energy in poor nations

By Alister Doyle and Mary Milliken

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Negotiators at U.N. talks agreed to
speed investments in clean-energy projects in the Third World
on Thursday but remained deadlocked on ways to enlist the
United States in a long-term fight against global warming.

About 160 nations at the U.N. climate talks agreed to
streamline a plan meant to encourage projects such as
hydroelectric power in Honduras and wind energy in China to
help cut use of fossil fuels.

A draft decision to go to ministers at the talks, which are
to end on Friday, reassured investors and Third-World nations
that the so-called “Clean Development Mechanism” (CDM) would
last beyond 2012, when the first phase of the U.N.’s Kyoto
protocol runs out.

Under the CDM program, rich nations can invest in Third
World clean energy projects and claim credits back home for
reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. So far more than 40
such projects have been approved.

The draft urges nations to make “urgent” contributions to
finance the CDM at about $18 million for 2006-07, up from $6
million in 2005. It also sets up ways to reform the program’s
management.

The novel project, part of the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol for
reining in global warming, has been hit by red tape and a lack
of staff to evaluate plans such as an Indian plant to generate
power from rice husks or a Brazilian project to burn the woody
waste from sugar cane.

If successful, some estimates say the plan might funnel
$100 billion in investments to the developing world and aid a
shift away from fossil fuels in power plants and factories,
whose emissions are widely blamed for stoking global warming.

“This puts the CDM process on a much more professional
basis,” said Andrei Marcu, president of the International
Emissions Trading Association. “This represents progress and a
basis to work on.”

The ministers were also struggling to break deadlock on
ways to entice the United States and developing nations into
long-term U.N. efforts to fight climate change.

The United States has defended its policy of investing
billions of dollars in cleaner technology to reduce emissions,
brushing aside calls for it to commit to long-term U.N.
discussions on slowing climate change.

“One size does not fit all,” Paula Dobriansky, the U.S.
under secretary for global affairs, who leads the American
delegation, told the talks on Wednesday.

Adding a sense of urgency to the talks is extreme weather,
including Hurricane Katrina, the world’s costliest
weather-related disaster, which scientists warn could be a
portent of things to come.