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| U.N. climate talks seen missing aid plan deadline Posted: 02 Mar 2011 07:14 AM PST OSLO (Reuters) - A plan by almost 200 countries to step up efforts to fight climate change is set to miss a March deadline for starting work on a green fund to help developing nations, delegates said on Wednesday.
Groups of Asian, and Latin American and Caribbean countries have yet to decide who will gain early influence in designing the "Green Climate Fund" by attending 40-nation U.N.-led talks due in Mexico City on March 14 and 15. The fund, under which aid flows are meant to reach $100 billion a year by 2020, was agreed by governments in December as part of a deal that the United Nations said reignited "a beacon of hope" for tackling global warming. John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, who represents the Latin American and Caribbean group where 14 countries are vying for seven seats in the fund planning committee, said it looked unlikely the matter could be resolved by mid-month. "Proceeding with the meeting would be a tall order" if all nominees were not in place, he told Reuters. The Asian group has said it will be unable to pick its seven delegates before April. "It may be difficult to have the meeting," Artur-Runge Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, told Reuters. Europe's eight delegates had been decided. The last U.N. talks in Cancun, Mexico, agreed in December to set up the fund as part of a package including steps to protect tropical forests and to limit any rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. Among the few firm deadlines set in the Cancun Agreements was that a "transitional committee" should meet by the end of March 2011 to start designing the fund. HEATWAVES, DROUGHTS, FLOODS Rising aid is meant to help developing nations curb their greenhouse gas emissions by shifting from fossil fuels towards renewable energies and to help them adapt to the impacts of heatwaves, droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels. Many countries want to ensure that interests are represented, even at preliminary talks. OPEC states in the Asian group, for instance, want compensation for a loss of oil revenues if the world shifts to wind or solar energy. The organisation of the March talks was criticised on Feb. 27 by cabinet ministers from major emerging countries China, India, Brazil and South Africa after talks in New Delhi. "The decision to convene a meeting of the transitional committee, even before many regional groups of countries have nominated their members, was premature," a joint statement said. They also said the committee should "take guidance from" the main U.N. climate forum of all countries, which is not due to meet until April 3 to 8 in Bangkok. Runge-Metzger said that statement also dimmed chances for the meeting in March. He said one option was to downgrade the Mexican talks to an informal session, open to all countries. Ashe said a delay was not necessarily a setback. "If a meeting is not held in March, additional meetings could be held in coming months," he said. Among continents that have decided delegates, Africa has picked seven from 21 candidates -- Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gabon and South Africa. The head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, Christiana Figueres, said in Japan on Tuesday that "governments must now implement quickly what they agreed in Cancun." The Secretariat has published a "progress tracker" for Cancun -- the list of transitional committee members is blank. For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Andrew Dobbie) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| ANALYSIS - Iran can seize brief window to fill Libya gap Posted: 02 Mar 2011 06:44 AM PST DUBAI (Reuters) - Lost Libyan oil gives Iran a chance to sell off its shunned crude stored on tankers, but only in a brief time window before promised Saudi supplies sail to the rescue of anxious European refiners. Lighter Saudi grades also make a better substitute for Libyan crude than heavier Iranian oil, which Tehran has struggled to sell as international sanctions limit its capacity to trade. Violent unrest in Libya has brought its 1.2 million barrels per day exports to a near halt, driving oil to a 2-1/2 year-peak last week of nearly $120 a barrel and leaving European refiners at the mercy of alternative suppliers. "While I would expect Iran to use the opportunity to draw down its floating stocks -- 25 million barrels by our count -- this doesn't go that far in replacing Libyan barrels," analyst Jamie Webster at PFC Energy said. "They don't have the capacity to take on Libya's obligations for too long, leaving plenty of room for Saudi." Saudi Arabia, which holds the bulk of the world's spare capacity, has raised its output to around 9 million barrels per day (bpd) and Saudi Aramco's CEO said this week all demands for extra crude had been met. It has said it can provide similar crude to the high-quality light crude Libya typically provides. Iran, OPEC's second biggest producer after Saudi Arabia, does not have that flexibility. Its available crude is heavier and more difficult to refine. But it has one advantage in that barrels it has placed in floating storage are already near Europe's shores. "I'd say their stocks are coming down as we speak," one crude trader based in the Gulf said. "For now, it is faster than Saudi Arabia ramping up, the stocks are there already." "But I don't think they'll have those customers asking for months," he said. Typically, the shortest journey for Saudi crude loaded from its west to the Mediterreanean takes about 10 days, traders say. Saudi Arabia has said it can shorten the journey time. Saudi sources said it could ship crude through its east-west pipeline and then to the Mediterranean and on to Europe. ADEPT AT DODGING Iran's opportunism in selling to needy European refineries is another instance of the survival strategies it has employed for years. Sanctions have been particularly problematic for it since the middle of last year when new international measures specifically targeted oil and gas trade. Banks are reluctant refuse to open credit lines for cargoes destined for Iran and shipowners decline to carry them. Insurers refuse to provide cover. Sanctions, however, are never water-tight. Cargoes of gasoline, needed by Iran to make up the shortfall because of its inadequate refinery infrastructure, still flow to Iran's Bandar Abbas port, traders and shippers in the Gulf say, or via land through Turkey and Iraq. They are shipped via vessels chartered by front companies, some based in the United Arab Emirates. "They (Iran) can handle it -- and with the premiums they pay for imported gasoline -- there are certainly some who are willing to make the passage across the Gulf to deliver," PFC's Webster said. Iran paid a premium of around 25 percent in mid-2010 for its imports from Turkey. Price is also key for Iran's crude exports, traders say. For the right level of reward, some countries would be willing to take on the sanctions risk. Italy had remained loyal to Iranian exports -- even before shipments from its major supplier Libya, meaning both parties have already found ways to adapt to the sanctions regime. Latest data from Italy show the country imported 9.59 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in the first 11 months of 2010. "It's difficult for a new player to take the heavier Iranian crude," said Alexander Poegl, consultant at JBC Energy. "It's always a question if you know how to work that type of crude in your refinery." "So it'd probably be the usual suspects (buying Iranian crude) -- Italy and probably also France," he said. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, editing by William Hardy) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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