Industrial nations were shying away from fixing stiff 2020 guidelines for greenhouse gases cuts at UN talks on Friday in what environmentalists said would be a vote for "dangerous" climate change.

A draft text at the UN talks dropped a demand that developed nations should be "guided" by a need for steep cuts in greenhouse gases of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 in working out a long-term fight against global warming.

"There are a limited number of problems still with the text," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat. He predicted a compromise by the end of the August 27-31 talks among 1,000 delegates with "something for everyone".

The European Union and many developing nations such as China and India want industrial states to use the stringent 25-40 percent range to guide future talks to force a shift away from fossil fuels, blamed by UN reports for stoking global warming.

But Russia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland objected to setting the stringent range in negotiations about extending the UN's Kyoto Protocol, the main plan for fighting global warming that runs to 2012, delegates said.

"The lower the stabilization level (of greenhouse gases) achieved, the lower the consequent damages," the draft said. It mentions the option of 25-40 percent cuts but drops a previous reference to them as an indicative guide for future work.

"This is voting for the apocalypse," said Stephanie Tunmore of environmental group Greenpeace. "The 25-40 percent range is needed to help avert dangerous climate change" such as more powerful storms, rising seas and melting glaciers, she said.

"Japan is willing to let the typhoons roll in and the water flow onto its coastal land. Switzerland is committed to melt all its remaining glaciers," environmentalists said in a newsletter.
Kyoto binds 36 industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a first step to contain warming that could bring more floods, desertification, disease and raise sea levels.

The talks are the first chance for Kyoto backers to see if they can agree a range for industrial nations' talks on a new climate pact that many governments want to agree in 2009.

(China Daily via agencies September 1, 2007)