Global Climate Change Treaty Delayed

Senior negotiators at a U.N. conference in Barcelona say a legallybinding environment treaty will be delayed. In the final day of aweeklong conference, world leaders say a global climate treaty might bepostponed by up to a year.

Delegates have been in Barcelona all week to hash out a planthat would pave the way for 192 nations to sign a legally bindinginternational climate deal next month.

But now executivesecretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boersays any decision taken next month in Copenhagen will instead be"morally binding." And a legally binding deal may take another year toput in place.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt interacts with the media during a visit to Sulabh International in New Delhi, India, 06 Nov 2009Speaking in India, Sweden's prime minister FredrikReinfeldt told journalists the setback comes because some countries arenot politically ready to sign a deal.

"What we hear is thatthe kind of legally binding agreement that we, for instance, did insidethe European Union, will probably not be possible since some of thecountries like the United States say we do not have the support in ourcongress to make a ratification on an international agreement," he said.

Butspeaking from Barcelona, Hugh Cole of the charity group Oxfam, saysEuropean leaders need to focus on their own lack of political will.

"As far as we're concerned they're basically hiding behind the United State's lack of ambition," he said.

Hesays the mood at the conference today is one of disappointment. And hesays it's developing countries that will be worst hit by this delay.

"We'realso seeing a clash between politics and special interests in richcountries contrasted very sharply with real impacts for people in thedeveloping world," said Cole.

"We're talking about farmers who arelosing their crops; we're talking about people who are having to learnto live with more frequent drought and floods. We're talking about morenatural disasters, increased levels of disease. These are impacts thatare being felt here and now in the developing world," he added.

Earlierthis week African delegates boycotted some talks because they saiddeveloped nations were not making concrete promises on cuttinggreenhouse gas emissions. They also say rich countries must makefinancial pledges to help developing countries deal with the changesbrought by climate change.

The European Union has said thatdeveloping nations will need almost $150 billion in aid per year by2020 to deal with climate change.

Cole says there is still potential for a good climate deal in Copenhagen next month.

"Whatis currently being discussed is that you would have a second commitmentperiod of the Kyoto Protocol, which doesn't currently include theUnited States, and then you would have a separate agreement which wouldbind the U.S. into its own omission reduction targets," he said.

The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding treaty agreed to by 37 countries in 1997. The current goals of the treaty end in 2012.