A timetable for a new climate deal was one of the main outcomes Sweden hoped for at the upcoming United Nations climate change conference to be hosted by Indonesia, Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said Wednesday, according to dpa. The conference to be held in Bali runs from December 3 to 14, and Carlgren was slated to attend along with Trade Minister Ewa Bjorling and State Secretary Ingemar Hansson of the Finance Ministry. "The big aim for the Bali meeting is to initiate talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen 2009," Carlgren said with reference to the UN Climate Summit to be hosted by neighbouring Denmark in December 2009. The Bali conference marks the start of international efforts to secure a new climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, Carlgren added at a briefing prior to the Bali parley. Other issues likely to be raised at Bali included markets for emission trading, as well as transfer of technology and investments. "In order to reroute the massive flows of money there was need to set a price for emissions," Swedish chief negotiator Anders Turesson said. Carlgren and Turesson said the talks at Bali would likely follow "two tracks" along the lines of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol on emission reductions. Turesson said it was "interesting that there was such great support for the multilateral UN track," noting that some developing countries wanted to "keep their distance to the Kyoto Protocol" on emission cuts. Pressure was, however, growing to get major emerging economies like China and India to adhere to the view that "it was possible to combine emission cuts with economic and social development and poverty reduction," he said. The some 30-strong Swedish delegation would compensate their flights via UN evaluated projects to offset greenhouse gas emissions, Carlgren said.
