【纽约时报111207】气候会谈中美依然对峙
【中文标题】气候会谈中美依然对峙【原文标题】At Climate Talks, a Familiar Standoff Between U.S. and China
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【来源地址】http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/science/earth/at-climate-talks-a-familiar-standoff-emerges-between-the-united-states-and-china.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
【译 者】 WilliamRUC
【翻译方式】 人工
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【译 文】
谢振华在联合国气候变化框架条约年度峰会周一的新闻发布会上
DURBAN, South Africa — China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has once again emerged as the biggest puzzle at international climate change talks, sending ambiguous signals about the role it intends to play in future negotiations. This week, the nation’s top climate envoy said that China would be open to signing a formal treaty limiting emissions after 2020 — but laid down conditions for doing so that are unlikely ever to be met.
China’s lead negotiator at the United Nations climate change talks here, Xie Zhenhua, said that China was prepared to enter into a legally binding agreement after current voluntary programs expire at the end of the decade, seemingly a major step. China has always contended that because of its rapid economic growth and the persistent poverty of millions of its citizens, it cannot be bound by the same emissions standards as advanced industrialized nations.
Mr. Xie outlined five conditions under which China would consider joining such a treaty as a full partner, the major one being that China and other rapidly growing economies must be treated differently from the so-called rich countries. But that has been a deal-breaker for the United States for years and is the central reason that the Senate refused to even consider ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 agreement whose goal, still unmet, is to limit global greenhouse gas emissions.
世界上最大的温室气体排放国——中国——再次成为了国际气候谈判最大的迷，它在未来谈判中打算扮演的角色模棱两可。本周，中国最高级别的气候大使表示中国将会签署正式协议限制2020年之后的排放量——但是定下了几乎不能满足的条件。
中国在联合国应对气候变化大会的首席谈判代表解振华表示，中国已经准备好在目前的十年自愿减排方案到期后，签署具有约束性的协定——这似乎是重要的一步。中国一直辩称，由于其快速增长的经济和依旧贫困的数百万公民，它应该不受针对先进工业国家排放标准的约束。
解振华提出了完全加入类似协定的五项条件，最主要的是中国和其他发展中国家必须与所谓的富国区别对待。但是这是美国及其参议院多年来拒绝批准东京议定书的关键原因，这项1997年协定旨在控制全球温室气体排放量，其目标并未实现。
“These conditions are not new,” Mr. Xie acknowledged at a briefing here where more than 190 nations are gathered for the 17th annual conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “These have been negotiated for the past 20 years.
“What is most important so far is to implement existing commitments and review efforts undertaken by the parties, and after that we can think about what should be done after 2020 and beyond.”
Todd D. Stern, the American climate change envoy, said that the United States would be happy to discuss a formal treaty and then spelled out his conditions, which also were not new and appeared to rule out any sort of deal like that envisioned by Mr. Xie.
For a legally binding agreement to take hold, “it’s going to be absolutely critical that it applies to all the major players, and China obviously is one of them,” Mr. Stern said at a briefing.
“All the major players are going to have to be in with obligations, with commitments that have the same legal force,” he added. “And that means there’s no conditionality, they’re not conditional on receiving technology or financing, there’s no trap doors, there’s no Swiss cheese in that kind of an agreement.”
“这些条件并不新鲜”，在190多个国家参加的第17次联合国气候变化框架条约年度会议上，谢振华承认，“20多年来一直在谈这些条件”。
“目前最重要的是落实现有的承诺，由不同组织检查当下的努力，然后我们可以思考2020年之后应该怎么做。”
美国气候变化特使托德•D•斯特恩说，美国不喜欢有人在讨论正式协定时还提出自己的条件，况且正如谢先生提到的，条件也并不新鲜。
对一项具有约束力的法律协定而言，“完全应该要求所有主要的成员遵守，中国毫无疑问属于其中”，斯特恩在简报中说。
“所有主要成员必须遵守协定”，他说，“这意味着没有例外条件，没有获得技术和资金支持的条件，没有幕后陷阱，在这种协议中没有瑞士奶酪可言（指特殊待遇）。”
The dispute between the United States and China, the two largest sources of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, has come to be an enduring feature of these negotiations and a source of deep frustration for the other players.
Jo Leinen, the German Social Democrat who leads the delegation from the European Parliament, lashed out at both superpowers on Wednesday afternoon.
“What is really frustrating to see is this conference is again hijacked by the Ping-Pong game between the U.S. and China,” he said. “It is unacceptable and no more tolerable that this game is blocking the overall process. Now that China has done some moves, let’s test their seriousness. I don’t see the same commitment, the same signals from the U.S. The one is not yet ready; the other is not willing. We really have a problem.”
The standoff has threatened to derail the process in each of the past several years, but at the end of the two-week session the parties usually pull back from the brink and announce an incremental, face-saving deal. This year’s talks appear headed for the same sort of conclusion.
Negotiators appear close to agreeing on how to structure a fund that is supposed to generate $100 billion a year in public and private financing for climate change programs by 2020. They have also made progress on programs to save tropical forests from clear-cutting, transfer clean-energy technology to emerging nations and refine systems for verifying that countries are taking steps to cut emissions.
中国和美国，这两个世界上最大的二氧化碳排放国对全球变暖造成了很大的影响，在这些问题上无休无止地争执，让其他谈判参与国家感到挫败。
周三下午，带领欧洲议会代表团的德国社会民主党人Jo Leinen同时抨击两个大国。
“看到会议又被中国和美国之间的乒乓球游戏挟持真让人沮丧”，他说，“再也不能忍受漫长的进程了，现在中国做了一些行动，让我们检查一下他们是否认真。我还没有发现美国有同样的举措。一个国家还没准备好，另一个国家还不情愿。我们真的遇到了大麻烦。”
过去几年来，这种对峙影响了谈判的进程，但是经过两周的会议，各方都能退让一步，宣布进入下一个阶段——彼此留面子的协定。今年的对话看上去也会走向同样的结果。
谈判各方显得将要达成一项基金协定，在2020年之前实现1000亿美元的私人和公共融资。他们还在保护热带雨林方面做了一些进展，把环保能源技术转让给新兴国家，细化核实了那些着手减少排放的国家。
The holy grail of these talks, a global treaty encompassing all nations and limiting temperature rise to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels, appears as elusive as ever.
Weary of the inconclusive jousting on a treaty with teeth, many delegates and observers say that small progress may not be a bad thing.
Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, a private research and advocacy group in Washington, said that while a legal treaty remained an important prod to action, it should not get in the way of more immediate steps.
“This preoccupation with ‘binding’ has become more an obstacle than a means of progress,” he said in an e-mail. “The reality is that key players including the United States and China are not prepared at this stage to take on binding commitments to reduce their emissions.
“Rather than arguing over that year after year, we should focus on strengthening the international climate framework step by step.”
这些谈判的目的旨在达成对所有国家有约束力的全球性条约，限制气温增长幅度在前工业化水平的3.6华氏度之内，其前景像以往一样难以捉摸。
许多代表和观察员表示小小的进展也不是坏事。
华盛顿一家私人研究与运动组织——能源与气候解决方案中心的副执行官Elliot Diringer,说，尽管具有法律约束力的协定仍然是重要目标，但是这不应该用更快速的方式达成。
“所谓共识已经是成为一种障碍，而不是一种手段”，他在一份邮件中说，“现实情况是，包括美国和中国在内的关键角色，都没有在这个阶段准备采取有约束力的承诺，以减少废气排放。”
“与其说年复一年地争来争去，我们还不如一步一步加强国际气候框架合作。”
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