MAKUHARI (Japan), March 16: Disagreements between rich and developing countries came into the open on Sunday as the world’s top 20 greenhouse gas emitters worked to lay the groundwork for a new deal on climate change.

The developed and developing countries, whose greenhouse gas emissions account for about 80 per cent of the global total, were wrapping up two days of talks hoped to jumpstart negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

But developing countries voiced scepticism about the meeting, saying they should not be considered in the same league as major industrialised countries when deciding on future cuts to gas emissions blamed for global warming.

“India, for example, has an emission of one ton per capita. The US is 20 tons per capita. So I have no idea why India should be a major emitter,” Indian climate official Ajay Mathur said late on Saturday.

The South African team was also highly critical of saying the meeting involved “20 major emitters” due to the gap with wealthy countries, Japanese trade minister Akira Amari said.

“I told them it’s important that all countries participate in measures to tackle climate change to avoid global warming,” Amari told reporters.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair opened the conference on Saturday with an impassioned call for developing nations to join the rich world in steep binding cuts in emissions for the sake of the planet. “I was worried about the atmosphere of the discussion,” said Yuri Onodera, an environmental activist at Friends of the Earth Japan.

“Developing countries say that developed countries should keep to their promises first before talking about involving developing countries into a new deal on climate change,” he said before the start of Sunday’s closed-door session.

The United States is the only major industrial country to shun the Kyoto Protocol, arguing that it is unfair by making no demands of fast-growing emitters such as China and India.

But virtually all countries agreed in talks in December in Bali to be part of the negotiations to draft a successor to the Kyoto treaty, whose obligations run out at the end of 2012.

The next round of negotiations starts at the end of the month in Bangkok.

Blair has been tasked with trying to bridge the gaps to help meet a UN-backed deadline of sealing Kyoto’s successor treaty by the end of 2009.

“The talks here are very useful, because this is the first opportunity after the Bali meeting,” said Halldor Thorgeirsson, director of the Bali Road Map efforts at the UN climate body.

The weekend talks are not aimed at coming up with a deal but will draft a chairman’s summary to be presented to July’s summit of the Group of Eight rich nations in northern Japan.

“Many countries are looking to Japan for leadership as it will host the G8 summit,” Thorgeirsson said.

UN climate experts have recommended steep cuts in emissions to at least slow down global warming, which is feared to spell devastating consequences for the ecosystem.

Japan, which lags behind in meeting its own Kyoto targets, has proposed setting energy efficiency standards for each industry — a so-called bottom-up approach — and sharing eco-friendly technology with developing countries.

But developing countries were sceptical about Japan’s position, which was backed by the United States.

Onodera agreed on the importance of energy efficiency, but warned: “I’m worried that if Japan pushes the idea too strongly, it could provoke developing countries and may have negative effects on the two years of talks ahead.”—AFP