With Friday's deadline approaching for a deal on how countries will meet commitments made in Kyoto, Japan three years ago to lower emissions, negotiators at a followup conference in The Hague are stymied over how much credit a country should get for preserving or planting carbon-thirsty forests.
Most scientists agree that sinks lower the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
They also want credit for underwriting forest protection and tree-planting in poorer countries. The dispute has turned nasty, pitting the Europeans against a collection of countries led by the U.S., Canada and Japan, raising doubts about whether a deal is possible. He pointed directly at Washington, which has gone to The Hague saying it believes sinks should account for up to half of its Kyoto pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by seven per cent from 1990 levels. But Lloyd Axworthy, the retired foreign minister heading the Canadian delegation because Liberal ministers are fighting for re-election, says sinks should count toward that total, too. It was one of the most important ingredients in the Kyoto Convention as a way of allowing countries to establish realistic targets with the expectation they could be met.