Cancun–China stressed the need Saturday for a global climate pact that sets a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol.
A four-day minister-level haggle kicks off in Cancun on Tuesday over two tracks of negotiations whose outcome would set a post-2012 strategy for rolling back greenhouse gases and aiding poor countries exposed to climate change.
The tracks are essentially interlinked, which explains why delegates fretted over a repeat of the logjam that drove last December's climate summit in Copenhagen to the brink of disaster.
One track gathers all 194 parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including the United States, while the other includes the 193 parties to the Kyoto Protocol–everyone but the United States.
"It might not seem very constructive, but I would say that is crucial that we would have a confirmation that there will be a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol here in Cancun," lead Chinese negotiator Su Wei told AFP.
"There are two pillars in this system. One is the convention itself, the other is the Kyoto Protocol," Su continued. "If one pillar is got rid of, you can imagine how the general architecture would look like and there will be certainly a collapse."
Developing countries have said they will commit to a deal in the first track provided there is a deal in the second track for renewing commitments under the Protocol after the first roster of pledges expires at the end of 2012.
But Japan bluntly gave notice this week it would refuse to sign up to a second commitment period.
There was "no sense" in renewing its pledges if the Protocol's cuts, applying just to rich economies, covered less than 30 percent of the world's emissions, it said.
Top carbon emitter China does not face these constraints as it is a developing country, while the United States, which is number two, abandoned Kyoto in 2001.
The European Union (EU) is Kyoto's biggest champion, but even so there are differences of opinion toward the treaty within the 27-nation bloc, a European diplomat said. Canada and Russia, meanwhile, are lukewarm or hostile to a second period if it does not include the world's biggest carbon polluters.
Scientists say unbridled burning of fossil fuels has brought concentrations of carbon dioxide, a colorless, odorless and tasteless greenhouse gas, to record concentrations.
Without urgent action to stem these emissions, the world is on track for worsening drought, floods, storms and rising seas, spelling a threat for hundreds of millions of people, they warn.
By 2030, climate change will indirectly cause nearly one million deaths a year and inflict 157 billion dollars in damage, according to estimates presented at UN talks.
