Talks aimed at saving the global climate hung in the balance early today as a fresh dispute erupted between the EU and Japan over compromise rules to implement the Kyoto Protocol.
A "frenzy of meetings", as one source described it, was under way in an effort to reach agreement. Japan, however, was said to have "very severe problems", while the position of Russia was said to be "imponderable".
Australia also had "very substantial difficulties" with the proposed deal, which has been accepted with reluctance by the EU. However, Canada, though still "flying kites", was believed to be quite happy with what it got.
With the negotiations likely to run into the night, it emerged that one of the main stumbling blocks was Japan, which indicated last night that it could not say yes or no until after noon today Tokyo time (4 a.m. Irish time).
Earlier, some doubts were put on the negotiations when news came through from the G8 summit in Genoa that the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Jean Chretien, had said it was unlikely that an agreement would be reached in Bonn.
This was based on his reading of a compromise document produced by Mr Jan Pronk, the Dutch Environment Minister, who is chairing the conference. It had been transmitted to Genoa for G8 leaders to study.
The paper, produced by Mr Pronk on Saturday night after intensive negotiations involving four representative working groups, had many compromises but was also seen as probably the best prospect for a deal in Bonn.
Mr Olivier Deleuze, the EU's chief negotiator, admitted that the EU had "big problems" with it, particularly the concessions it made to Canada, Japan and Australia on the use of forests as "carbon sinks".
"But if it's a `take it or leave it' paper, in the spirit of flexibility, and because we have talked enough about climate change over the last 10 years, Europe is ready to accept it," said Mr Deleuze, the Belgian Energy Minister.
The EU feared that if it tabled any amendments this would open the floodgates to numerous other amendments from groups unhappy with aspects of the package. So the EU decided to "swallow" its reservations.
Mr Juergen Trittin, the German Environment Minister, made it clear that the concessions on "sinks", amounting to 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year, was "completely opposed" to the EU position throughout the talks.
However, he said compromise was inevitable in all international negotiations. "The problem is that no one was able to move with one basket [of issues] until they could see what was in it for them in the other baskets."
Yesterday evening, Mr Pronk told a plenary session of the climate change summit that he had met all of the groups and appealed to them to follow the EU example. However, Canada, Japan and Australia wanted yet more concessions.
A senior British official said the US decision in March to renege on Kyoto had given "negotiating leverage" to Japan, Canada and other countries which had been lukewarm about meeting the protocol's emission reductions.
"The deal on offer here is not far from the one rejected by the EU at The Hague conference last November and, in some respects, it is less good," he said. "It's a political fix to accommodate Japan, Canada and other countries."
