Nations in stand-off at green summit

UN talks aimed at brokering a deal to protect the world’s diminishing natural resources have made little progress, green groups said ahead of the summit’s second phase starting today.

The 12 days of negotiations in the central Japanese city of Nagoya are aimed at securing agreement on how to stop the rapid loss of the world’s plant and animal species, as well as their habitats. However, after the first week, environment groups said the conference was becoming bogged down in the same kind of acrimony between developed and developing nations that have plagued UN climate change negotiations.

“What we need to see is a global alliance to protect life on earth, but what we have seen so far are alarming divisions and a hardening of positions,” WWF international director general Jim Leape said.