Marathon climate talks end in deadlock

Two weeks of United Nations talks in the German city of Bonn have ended with little progress on drafting a plan for cutting carbon dioxide emissions after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The talks were aimed at paving the way for the climate summit taking place in Bali in December.

The top UN official on climate change, Yvo de Boer, said if talks did not begin this year, there could be a very negative impact on the whole concept of a market in carbon.

The omens are not good. At the German meeting, the US said they did not believe negotiations would begin in Indonesia.

China and India are still unwilling to commit to limits on emissions that would hamper their economic growth.

Mr de Boer says the lack of progress is disappointing.

"As long as governments don't decide to embark on negotiations around the post-2012 climate change regime and as long as governments don't indicate that they want the carbon markets to be central to that post-2012 climate change regime, there is no encouraging signal to the carbon market," he said.

Contingency plans are being made to keep carbon markets going if negotiations in Bali fail.

- BBC