EU leads last-gasp effort to salvage climate-change deal

Deadlocked UN talks on a timetable for an ambitious global climate change deal went to the wire last night in Bali. With only 24 hours left to secure an agreement, the EU led an unprecedented assault on the US delegation and its refusal to commit to binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions. The Europeans were joined by the Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore in heaping pressure on the US. He appealed to delegates to sign up to the timetable in the belief that a new administration would be in place in Washington in time to complete the process in two years' time.

With the science "unequivocal" and much of the detail of the road map agreed earlier than expected, the battle has centred on the inclusion of an explicit call for industrialised nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 per cent. The UK, the EU and much of the developing world want to launch an attempt to arrest the build-up of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. The opposing camp, led by the US and aided by Canada, wants a two-year timetable for a successor to the Kyoto climate treaty, stripped of all hard numbers.

"The EU has long been leading, it's time for other industrialised countries to wake up to climate change," said the European commissioner on the environment Stavros Dimas. He went on to demand that America show "leadership not only in words but in deeds".

It emerged last night, however, that the US was pushing for any agreement to be worded in a way that would make cutting greenhouse gas emissions voluntary rather than mandatory. A leaked copy of the proposed US text revealed that the delegation was attempting to include the words "as appropriate", "depending" and "may". "This is an extraordinary attempt by the Bush administration to kill off the international fight against climate change," said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK. EU leaders said they were "disappointed" with the US and would not attend a key meeting with George Bush next month if there was not an ambitious timetable agreed in Bali.

Mr Gore told the conference: "I'm not bound by diplomatic niceties. My own country is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali." Quoting Winston Churchill, he said: "They go in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided... All powerful to be impotent."

The Oscar-winner told delegates they had two choices when confronted with US intransigence. He appealed to them not to give in to "anger and frustration" and instead sign up to a Bali accord that would leave a "large open blank space" to be filled by a new US administration in a little over a year from now.

The UK delegation confirmed that it was committed to a common EU position. The UK Climate Change minister, Phil Woolas, said: "The fact is that we have had a disagreement with [the US] and it has to be sorted."

In private, senior negotiators sense an opportunity to pressure a weakened US into an accord that would have been unthinkable a year ago.

The US delegation all White House appointees won few friends yesterday as it told delegates: "We will lead but leadership requires others to fall in line and follow."

The main product of Bali is set to be agreement to save the remainder of the world's tropical forests by compensating poorer countries for preserving their trees. Norway has led the way with a stunning commitment to invest $2.7bn over the next five years in avoided deforestation.

Switch your Gas & Electricity and save up to £380 with Independent Compare