‘We Came So Close’
British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott earlier stormed out of the talks saying major players had been unable to make the compromises needed to clinch a deal by a 4 p.m. local time deadline.
     “There isn’t a deal,” he told reporters as he strode out. “We came so close ... I’m gutted [devastated].”
     The talks tried to agree on steps to implement a pact reached in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 calling for a 5 percent average cut in developed nations’ 1990 levels of emissions by 2010.
     Scientists say gases like carbon dioxide threaten potentially disastrous effects on weather, sea levels and the spread of diseases like malaria and dengue fever.
     Many delegates urged a resumption in coming weeks, but U.S. chief negotiator Frank Loy said that Washington stood ready to resume negotiations only at some point in the coming year, a possible reflection of disarray at home over the unresolved U.S. presidential election.
     “We came so close, only to see our efforts unravel,” Loy said. “We didn’t quite manage to push it over the goal line.” 

Critics Declare Meeting a Failure
The EU’s Dominique Voynet, the French environment minister, said that if negotiators had had a day more, or even just half a day more, they might have sealed an agreement.
     “Kyoto isn’t dead,” she said. “The talks were not crowned with the success that we would have liked. Nevertheless it cannot be classed as a failure.”
     Environmentalists countered that it was very much a failure and said U.S. intransigence had handed victory to polluters and defeat to poorer nations facing devastating storms and floods.
     U.N. scientists say unchecked global warming could lead to the displacement of tens of millions of people in coastal zones.
     The G77 group of developing countries said the failure condemned them to more environmental turmoil.
     “We will continue to be the victims of the adverse impacts of climate change,” said G77 spokesman Sani Daura of Nigeria. He blamed the breakdown on what he called selfishness and lack of political will among rich nations.
     “You’ve sunk the world,” shouted furious protesters gathering outside the conference after Prescott’s departure.
     “The world will pay the price in tears,” said the Friends of the Earth group. “We will not forgive or forget those who wrecked the talks and put our planet further in danger.” 

Poor Nations Blame U.S.
The dispute between the U.S. and the EU centered on a U.S. plan to allow developed nations to count carbon dioxide soaked up by forests, so-called carbon sinks, against emissions reduction targets set in Kyoto in 1997.
     Both Loy and Voynet said the talks had broken down over sinks, how to enforce compliance with Kyoto, and the extent to which countries could use markets and land management as credits against emissions targets.
     He said the complexity of the issue was partly to blame. “Global warming is a diplomatic challenge that I cannot believe is matched by any other,” he said.
     Washington, backed by Australia, Canada and Japan, says it cannot reach its target without such methods. Opponents say the plan is fraudulent because it could mean no cuts by the world’s biggest polluter, the United States, and might actually lead to an increase in global emissions.
     Many business leaders and U.S. oil companies, however, fear the costs of stopping the earth from heating up could have equally damaging effects on economic growth and jobs.
     Poor nations say the U.S. position violated the “polluter pays” principle, and argue that climate change is the product of U.S. and European industrialization fueled by oil and coal.