Climate Delegates Call On US For Robust Policy

ARTHUR MAX

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The United States came under increased pressure Monday to come up with a plan for fighting climate change and to offer an internationally acceptable policy for curbing pollution hastening global warming.

As U.N. climate talks reconvened, countries stepped up calls on Washington for specific commitments on reducing carbon emissions and contributing to a global climate fund to help poor countries deal with the damage already being caused by climate change.

The five-day negotiating round in Barcelona is meant to prepare the text of a global warming pact to be adopted at a major U.N. conference next month in Copenhagen.

The deal would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but require both industrial countries and developing countries to rein in emissions of carbon and other heat-raising greenhouse gases. Kyoto applied only to industrialized nations, and was rejected by the United States.

Delegates to the Barcelona talks were showing frustration that after two years of talks, the U.S. has been unable to make firm commitments because it is waiting for Congress to enact legislation.