US President Barack Obama has unveiled an international forum of 17 major economies to speed up work towards a key global warming UN accord.
Mr Obama has invited 16 other major economies to join the US at the Major Economics Forum on Energy and Climate to be hosted in Washington at the end of April.
The preparatory talks on 27 to 28 April will be followed by a summit of the 17 leaders to be held in Italy in July, aiming to help hammer out a new agreement to curb greenhouse gases to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
‘The Major Economies Forum will facilitate a candid dialogue among key developed and developing countries, help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the UN climate change negotiations,’ the White House said in a statement.
Mr Obama hopes the new forum will aid talks in Copenhagen in December aimed at producing a new UN accord.
And he aims to ‘advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions,’ the White House statement said.
UN talks on delivering a deal are set to resume in Bonn today, with many hoping Mr Obama's untested negotiators can breathe life into the troubled process.
Some 190 nations will launch a marathon of meetings designed to culminate in Copenhagen with a new pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012.
The UN goal is either for halving emissions compared with a benchmark year, or pegging temperature increases below 2C compared to pre-industrial times, according to a UN text unveiled last week.
But there remains deep disagreement on how to divide up the burden between rich and emerging economies and what stepping-stone targets should be set along the way.
