Rich-poor divide reopens at UN climate talks

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BONN, Germany (AP) -- The advances made in U.N. climate talks last year appeared at risk Thursday as a rift between rich and poor countries reopened in negotiations aimed at crafting a global pact to stop the planet from overheating.

The session in Bonn was meant to build on a deal struck in Durban, South Africa, in December, but the talks were faltering heading into the penultimate day amid disputes over what, exactly, was agreed on last year.

Delegates were struggling to reach consensus on the agenda for future talks under the new Durban Platform, with China and others reluctant to close existing negotiating tracks that make clear distinctions between the responsibilities of developed and developing nations.

"There is distrust and there is frustration in the atmosphere," Seyni Nafo, spokesman for a group of African countries, told The Associated Press.

The two-decade-old negotiations have had limited success in creating a global regime to rein in the emissions of heat-trapping gases which a big majority of climate scientists say are warming the Earth, with potentially devastating consequences for poor countries ill-prepared to deal rising sea levels, floods and other effects of a changing climate.