The 33-page text, outlining options for a possible deal at the halfway mark of the Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 meeting, underscored deep rifts between rich and poor about future curbs in greenhouse gas emissions and aid to help the poor.
“It’s not complete in some key areas,” US deputy climate envoy Jonathan Pershing told delegates at the talks in the Caribbean resort of Cancun.
It defines goals, including a new fund to help developing nations and ways to protect tropical forests and share clean technologies. A treaty is out of reach after world leaders failed to reach a binding deal last year in Copenhagen.
Pershing said the text did not do enough, for instance, to ensure that developing nations would carry out promises to slow the growth of their carbon emissions. China has overtaken the United States as the top emitter. Some developing nations said the text, which outlines a goal of limiting global warming to a maximum average global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times, implied too weak action by the rich.
“This paper lacks sufficient ambition for the urgent protection of islands and of the world in the context of the threat of climate change,” said Dessima Williams of Grenada, which heads the Alliance of Small Island States.
Bolivia and Venezuela also slammed the text as too weak to avoid more droughts, floods, desertification and rising sea levels. Others including the European Union, reserved judgment on the text. Some praised it as a basis for talks.
Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa urged delegates to compromise and said they had made progress on some areas in the first week. “I call upon you to act with a renewed sense of urgency,” she said.
