"The United States resisted pledging steeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 on Monday despite calls by poor nations at the start of a U.N conference for tougher action to avert storms, droughts and rising seas."
"About 200 nations met for annual U.N. talks on global warming with little prospect of a breakthrough and recriminations over how to keep alive hopes of a new, global U.N. deal to fight climate change meant to start up in 2020.
'We're sleepwalking off a cliff,' Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said. There was a lack of ambition to confront rising world greenhouse gas emissions at the two-week meeting, the first in an OPEC nation, he said.
U.S. deputy climate envoy Jonathan Pershing said that President Barack Obama was sticking to his 2009 goal of cutting emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. That target was not approved by the U.S. Senate."
Alister Doyle and Stian Reklev report for Reuters November 27, 2012.
SEE ALSO:
"U.N. Climate Talks Promise Little Drama" (New York Times)
"Euro Debt Crisis Saps EU's Ability To Lead Climate Debate" (Reuters)
"Top Polluter Qatar Defends Right To Host Climate Talks" (Reuters)
"Converting Agreements to Action Key to Doha Climate Talks" (ENS)
"The Kyoto Protocol Is Not Quite Dead" (Guardian)
"Global Climate Talks Timeline -- Interactive" (Guardian)
"Doha 2012: US Claims 'Enormous' Efforts To Cut Carbon Emissions" (Guardian)
"Canada, The Surprise 'Pariah' of the Kyoto Protocol" (Guardian)
"Climate Change Adaptation Cash for Poor Countries Fails To Materialise" (Guardian)
"Qatar And Some Other Persian Gulf Nations Begin To Walk Their Climate Talk" (ClimateWire)
"Failed CO2 Targets: Going Through the Motions in Doha" (Der Spiegel)
"Kyoto Battle Lines Drawn as Climate Talks Dig Into Detail" (AFP)
"As Doha Climate Talks Convene, Report Finds Broken Promises" (IHT Rendezvous/NYT)
"Doha Climate Talks Open Amid Warnings of Calamity" (Irish Examiner)
