OTTAWA - Canada is working closely with European nations to bring the United States into a new global climate-change treaty, says a senior European source familiar with the negotiations.
Part of bringing Washington onboard, says the source, includes finding easier ways to negotiate the followup to the Kyoto Protocol. The current United Nations-led process, which is supposed to begin this December in Bali, is seen by key players as a cumbersome forum, the source said.
That version of events flies in the face of the public spat between Germany and the U.S. in the run-up to next week's G8 leaders' summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the host of the meeting, has been pushing a draft of a climate-change statement that sets global targets for greenhouse gas reductions and underlines the primacy of the Bali talks.
Washington has balked at such language, and specifically rejects the reduction target of 50 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050.
The Canadian and Japanese governments - and the Europeans more quietly - are focused on bringing the U.S. onboard so that other countries such as China and India will also be persuaded to participate. The G8 meetings are regarded as key because of the weight the leaders bring to the discussion.
"Mr. Speaker, once again, as I said yesterday, this government will be working to ensure that there is an effective international protocol that includes all nations, with real targets for the period past 2012," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Mitsui Sakaba had a similar comment, explaining why Japan didn't support setting a 2009 deadline for drafting the new treaty.
"Japan cannot agree with this because we should think about how we can invite non-Kyoto members such as the U.S., China and India and others," Sakaba told reporters.
"We should work first for the inclusion of those countries. Fixing the target should come much later."
Still, the messaging from Washington on Tuesday seemed distant from the other G8 members.
James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the United States is not against setting targets but prefers to focus them on specific sectors, such as cleaner coal and reducing dependence on gasoline. "The U.S. has different sets of targets," he said.
Environment Minister John Baird tried to dampen expectations of an imminent agreement.
"I don't think there's an expectation this is going to be solved at the G8, I don't think this is gong to be solved in Bali in December. ... It's going to take a lot of work this year, a lot of work next year," Baird said.
Baird also said the UN process is not the only one Canada supports.
"The object and the focus of the efforts has got to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions absolutely, and whatever process gets us there, Canada will support. We'll meet any time, any place, and an effective system has got to get the United States on board."
The current phase of Kyoto is set to expire in 2012, but observers have said that the next phase must be concluded quickly in order for international carbon trading markets to survive. Companies there that cannot meet domestic greenhouse-gas reductions trade credits with cleaner companies on the market.
