Ministers from around 60 nations, meeting at two separate conferences, have failed to make progress toward an agreement on combating climate change.
EU and Asian diplomats are discussing climate change for a second day Tuesday in Hamburg, Germany, ahead of the G8 (Group of Eight industrialized nations) summit in Germany next week.The EU has been unable to convince China and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to commit to reductions in greenhouse gases after the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
Meanwhile, energy ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum also disagreed on climate change as they began their meeting in Darwin, Australia Tuesday.The U.S. and Australia ruled out consideration of a regional carbon-trading system to fight global warming. The U.S. said differing circumstances among the 21 APEC members would make reaching an agreement difficult. Australia will host APEC's summit in September.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.