By Gerard Wynn and Richard Cowan
Barcelona/Washington - A United Nations climate treaty may need an extra year beyond a December deadline to agree details, delegates at United Nations talks said on Thursday even as a US Senate committee approved a carbon-capping bill.
The November 2-6 meeting of 175 nations in Spain, the last session before a UN accord is due in Copenhagen next month, turned gloomy about salvaging a strong deal after two years of negotiations.
World leaders have also said in recent days that Copenhagen may merely agree a politically binding deal rather than a full legally binding treaty. In Spain, negotiators suggested extensions from three months to a year or more.
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Toughening a Copenhagen text if it fall short of a binding deal "should be done as early as possible ... three months, six months", said Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation.
A British official said it was likely to take at least six months and "ideally no longer than a year" to agree details. After Copenhagen, the next meeting of environment ministers is in Mexico in December 2010.
Talks to agree on a UN pact began in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007 with a two-year deadline to agree a pact meant to fight a rise in temperatures, more floods, droughts or rising sea levels.
But recession has hit many nations and carbon-capping legislation in the United States, the biggest emitter after China, is unlikely to be ready this year despite a vote by a Senate panel on Thursday in favour of a Democratic climate bill.
John Ashe, chairperson of talks to extend the existing Kyoto Protocol, said negotiators should wrap up at the next meeting of officials in Bonn around May if Copenhagen stalls, as happened when a previous UN meeting was suspended in 2000.
"We did it before, we can do it again," he said.
And a Japanese official said "unless it's agreed within six months after Copenhagen it will perhaps be the following year because of the US mid-term elections". About a third of the US Senate is up for re-election in November 2010. - Reuters
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