Bonn

The Kyoto Protocol took a critical, if shaky, step forward this week as the latest round of climate-change talks ended in Bonn, Germany. Almost 180 countries signed up to rules that take the agreement on limiting greenhouse-gas emissions a step closer to coming into force next year.

Real deal: delegates in Bonn have settled on a watered-down version of the original agreement. Credit: IISD/ENB-LEILA MEAD

The talks were marked by a series of concessions by the European Union (EU). The United States' withdrawal from the accord earlier this year, together the failure of the previous set of talks, held in The Hague last November, had raised fears that the process could collapse altogether. The compromises agreed on 23 July, after days of round-the-clock negotiations, were accepted by the EU to prevent countries such as Japan and Canada following the United States in rejecting the protocol.

The main EU concession was a climbdown over the use of carbon sinks — projects such as planting new forests to absorb carbon dioxide. The original protocol allowed a range of sink activities to be used as credits to increase the amount of greenhouse gases that countries are entitled to emit. But the Umbrella Group — a coalition of industrialized countries that includes Japan and Canada — had been pushing for the inclusion of further sink projects, such as changing the way in which existing forests are managed.

With delegates desperate for agreement, the Umbrella Group succeeded in winning a better deal than the one the EU had rejected in The Hague, allowing them to gain credit from forest-management projects and other new sinks. The EU also had to back down over plans to put a cap on the total number of credits that countries can earn from sinks and projects such as investing in emissions-reducing technology in developing countries. And although limits were agreed on the extent of the newly included sinks, Japan and Canada negotiated exemptions from these until 2010. “It's a political fix,” says a British member of the EU negotiating team. “That's the price of the deal.”

The final hours of the meeting also saw exhausted delegates defer a decision on the penalties for countries that fail to meet their targets, which the EU wants to be legally binding. But the EU did secure one of its aims — the rejection of nuclear power as a means of cutting emissions. Umbrella Group countries had wanted to be able to claim credits by replacing fossil-fuel power stations with nuclear ones. Some had also requested credit for helping developing countries to build nuclear power stations.

Environmental groups are disappointed that the treaty has been watered down. According to the WWF, the current agreement will achieve a 2% cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2010, rather than the 5% predicted under the original protocol. Sink projects are likely to improve this figure somewhat, although it is unclear by how much.

Nevertheless, the main reaction is one of relief that the Kyoto process is not dead. “This will send a message to the market,” says Jennifer Morgan of the WWF. “It must factor in the cost of carbon.”