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'Bush Is Playing a Double Game'

Tensions have been high at the UN climate conference on Bali as the European Union and United States faced off over emissions cuts. German commentators assess the roles of Germany and the US at opposite ends of the climate divide.

Delegates from around the world have spent the last 10 days attempting to lay the groundwork for a deal on how best to tackle climate climate. The UN climate conference on Bali, which ends Friday, is intended to launch negotiations for a climate change agreement that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Germany has been leading the way in trying to persuade the United States, the only major industrial nation to have rejected the Kyoto Protocol, to sign up to binding targets for emissions reductions.

Negotiators in Bali have been seeking to find a compromise to end a US-Europe standoff on how ambitious goals should be. The European Union wants the conference to agree on a goal of reducing emissions by 25 to 40 percent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2020. The US favors a voluntary approach and opposes the inclusion of precise figures at this stage of the negotiations. The EU had threatened on Thursday to boycott US-led climate talks planned for next January, if Washington continues to block a deal.

On Friday German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that the conference was heading for a compromise solution. "I think the situation is good and the climate in the climate conference is good," he told reporters. "We will have success in the end."

German commentators on Friday assess both the German and the US roles in the Bali conference.

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Sigmar Gabriel is actively fighting at the climate conference to make industrialized countries commit to ambitious climate targets. But as much as he makes an effort, his credibility is thwarted in other places."

"There is the suspicion that (the German government) only takes climate protection seriously when it doesn’t hurt it but rather is useful to it -- for example, when it helps the German environmental industry in exporting renewable energy technology, or helps boost the domestic economy when tradespeople get contracts to make buildings more environmentally friendly. But where climate protection could really hurt the German economy, for example the automobile industry or energy companies, then the self-proclaimed trailblazers become the blockers."

"The German government together with the EU have built up an image of being climate angels who can reduce emissions and still live in prosperity. And that is how they want to persuade the rest of the world to act to protect the climate. But with its contradictory policies, the German government is endangering its function as role model -- and could also threaten the success of the climate negotiations."

The left-wing Berliner Zeitung writes:

"Bush is playing a double game: While his delegates outside the negotiating room are trying to create a good atmosphere, inside they are blocking, playing tricks and procrastinating as much as ever. The US does not want any binding climate targets and rejects the successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The US would prefer it if the UN was left out of things completely. It is playing for time. Every day without a new agreement brings George W. Bush and his friends in the oil and energy industry hard cash.

"But there is one consolation: George W. Bush's game is temporary. At the latest after the elections next year the US's stance will have changed fundamentally. Any new US president will have to really take into account the growing awareness of the environment and the climate, rather than just rhetorically. Then there is a huge chance that the world's biggest emitter will be on board. Until then the international community should go it alone."

The business daily Handelsblatt writes.

"For Gabriel there is no going back. He has emphasized that a final document that only contains a roadmap for an agreement at the end of 2009 will not be enough. In order to make sure things go his way, he is likely to get Chancellor Merkel to pick up the phone and bring stubborn negotiating partners on board."

"Merkel has long shone on the world stage with the issue (of climate change), without really having to deal with the annoying details. Now in the hard political negotiations she has an opportunity to prove just how important climate protection is to her."

"Merkel has already proven many times in recent months that she has a particular talent for producing surprises in seemingly hopeless situations. Quiet and efficient mediation is her speciality … If she could succeed in persuading the US president to compromise, that would be quite a sensation."

-- Siobhán Dowling, 12:50 p.m. CET