THE INTERIM nature of the 14th UN climate change conference in Poznan was underscored yesterday with European Union and United States delegation leaders deflating expectations that it will produce anything more positive than a mood.
"Those who expect spectacular results from Poznan will be disappointed," said French ambassador for climate change Brice Lalonde, speaking for the EU. "Nothing is over until it is over. And that will happen in Copenhagen [next December]".
But he anticipated that Poznan would produce an agenda, or "shared vision", that the economic crisis could not delay action on climate change and that investment in green technology was one of the better answers for dealing with this crisis.
Dr Harlan Watson, the chief US negotiator who has been a familiar figure at climate talks over the past eight years, also saw Poznan as a "positive step along the way to Copenhagen", when a deal is meant to be negotiated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Everything is wide open. There is no real push from anybody to foreclose options, and that's shared by most parties. People are still putting ideas on the table. The ideas are still rolling in, so we may see a yet thicker document coming out of here," he said.
This was a reference to the 82-page document produced by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to serve as a basis for discussion. But Dr Watson said it was unlikely to become a "negotiating text" for Copenhagen.
He was responding to a question about whether the US delegation, which represents the outgoing Bush administration, would be agreeing to anything in Poznan that would tie the hand of the incoming administration of president-elect Barack Obama.
In response to another question, he said there had been "no direct contact" between the US delegation in Poznan and Obama's team; instead, the president-elect would be briefed by Democrat members of the US Congress attending the UN conference.
According to Dr Watson, who is certain to be replaced as the US chief negotiator, what's likely to happen following Poznan is that a further interim meeting in Bonn at the end of March would produce a text that would serve as the basis for negotiations in Copenhagen.
"We fully expect that will be a draft negotiating text of some kind and that things will get down to [being] really in earnest then. Whether we get agreement in Copenhagen will not be easy. It may not be the 'final final', but something we believe will move the ball forward," he said.
The real problem with Poznan is one of timing. It is taking place just over a month before President George Bush hands over to Barack Obama and it's also happening in the same week as European leaders are expected to finalise the EU's climate and energy package.
A senior German source was not very optimistic of anything emerging from the Poznan talks because, in the absence of firm commitments from the EU and US to cut emissions by at least 20 per cent by 2020, China and India won't let themselves be pinned down.
Officially, there were no negotiations yesterday because it was the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid, marking the end of Ramadan. However, talks continued informally between delegations while numerous "side events" were staged by different groups.
Pat Finnegan, co-ordinator of Griain, which is affiliated to the Climate Action Network, said Poznan was being overshadowed by a "potentially highly destructive lack of agreement" among European leaders on the scale and content of the EU's contribution.
He called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to show that Ireland was prepared to "step up to the plate" by agreeing to a 30 per cent cut in domestic emissions by 2020 as well as full auctioning of carbon credits and aid for developing countries to cut their emissions.
The network has been campaigning for Europe to hold to its proclaimed leadership role in UN climate change talks by strengthening the EU climate and energy package to provide more funding for "decarbonisation" in developing countries.