In an important sign of progress, the chairman of key closed-door talks said delegates were moving toward consensus on just which gases should be controlled. And a Third World spokesman hinted at eventual compromise over a U.S. demand that the mandated cutbacks apply to at least some developing nations. Scientists say the emissions, which allow sunlight to reach Earth but trap the resulting heat in the atmosphere, may boost global average temperatures by up to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, raising ocean levels through heat expansion and abruptly shifting climate zones.
Most emissions stem from the burning of fossil fuels.
Because voluntary emissions restraints in the 1992 treaty were largely ignored, governments began negotiations in 1995 to set legally binding cutbacks. From the outset, the negotiations over energy restraints have not targeted the developing world, recognizing that the atmosphere's carbon accumulation is mostly attributable to the industrial North. But the U.S. Senate, sensitive to U.S. industry's contention that a Third World free to burn unlimited cheap coal would offer unfair competition, is demanding that any new treaty protocol apply to developing countries as well. American negotiators reported no breakthroughs yet on this issue. But a spokesman for the Third World bloc sounded conciliatory.