A new compromise proposal recently released by Jan Pronk, chairperson of climate change talks held in November 2000, offers too many sops to the us , perhaps in a bid to bring back the country into the loop. Pronk invited about 40 countries to informally discuss the new proposal in New York on April 21, 2001, even as formal discussions are scheduled for July 2001. It was a first such meeting after the us president Bush summarily rejected the Kyoto Protocol last month complaining that it was harmful to the us economy and too lax on developing countries. The protocol binds industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas ( ghg ) emissions by about five per cent below 1990 levels during 2008-2012.

The new proposal has received a lot of flak from the G 77 group of developing countries. "The group is appreciative of the fact that some progress is discernible in certain areas in the paper (Pronk's proposal) such as financial mechanisms. But we do not find the tenor of the paper favourable to its positions, concerns and interests, which have not been addressed adequately,' said Bagher Asadi, chairperson of G77 and ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Even some fundamental principles and concepts in the convention and the protocol appear to have been downplayed or neglected, he added.

Meanwhile, the European Union ( eu ) agreed on the damaging compromises enlisted in the proposal and expressed willingness to renegotiate controversial issues with the us. However, it is ready to ratify the protocol even if the us does not do so.

The proposal allows countries to meet up to 50 per cent of their Kyoto emissions reduction target by using sinks, like forests and soil, to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Unrestrained use of sinks to meet commitments under the protocol was one of the key demands of the us and its allies