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Climate on improve as hosts, US lift summit
Source: Agencies |
December 18, 2009, Friday
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DANISH hosts revived climate talks yesterday and the United States backed a US$100 billion fund to aid poor countries as world leaders gathered in Copenhagen on the eve of a UN deadline to reach a deal to slow global warming.
Environment ministers planned to work late into the night on draft texts outlining curbs on greenhouse gas emissions as part of a 193-nation deal due today to slow climate change.
The talks, deadlocked for 24 hours, resumed after Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen dropped plans to present his own compromise texts. His plan had been opposed by poor nations.
"Time is against us, let's stop posturing," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a speech. "A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and every one of us."
He proposed a late-night meeting of leaders, saying time was running out.
The talks have made little progress since they were launched in late 2007 with a deadline of a deal by the end of the UN climate conference.
"The United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing US$100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference.
China countered with its own offer to open its books on efforts to cut emissions.
Clinton made the offer contingent on reaching a broader agreement at the climate conference about "transparency," a reference to US insistence that China allow some international review of how it controls the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that create global warming.
China said it is willing to provide explanations and clarifications about its actions to control carbon emissions.
Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said China is ready for "dialogue and cooperation that is not intrusive, that does not infringe on China's sovereignty."
Environment ministers, having taken over from lower-level negotiators, pressed yesterday in hopes of producing partial agreements to put before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, US President Barack Obama and more than 110 other leaders at today's summit.
Such accords might include long-term goals for financing climate aid, and monitoring of emissions controls.
The Clinton offer represented the first time the US government has publicly cited a figure in discussions over long-term financing to help poorer countries build sea walls against rising oceans, cope with unusual drought and deal with other impacts of climate change, while also financing renewable-energy and similar projects.
The US$100 billion, a number first suggested by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, falls short of what experts say would be needed. The World Bank and others estimate the long-term climate costs for poorer nations, from 2020 or so, would likely total hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
China and other developing countries say the target should be in the range of US$350 billion.
In addition, the developing nations want long-term financial support based on stable revenue sources, such as a global aviation tax.
"It's good there's now been a statement of support for a clear number on long-term finance," UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said of the US offer. "This discussion will have to take place with other parties, whether they feel that sum is adequate."
More immediately, the conference has been discussing a short-term climate fund to help developing countries - a US$10 billion-a-year, three-year program.
European Union leaders last week committed to supplying US$3.6 billion a year through 2012.
On Wednesday, Japan, seeking to "contribute to the success" of Copenhagen, announced it would kick in US$5 billion a year for three years.
US funding is hovering at only around US$1 billion this year, and Clinton, when asked, did not specify how much Washington would contribute to the "fast start" package.
"We'll do our proportion of 'fast start'," she said.
De Boer commented afterward, "I'm keenly looking forward to hearing what the US contribution to that fund will be."
The "transparency" issue relates to recent pledges by such major developing countries as China, India and Brazil to rein in the growth of their emissions by specific amounts - on a voluntary basis.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialized nations that must cut their emissions - not including the US, which rejects Kyoto - are required to file detailed reports to the UN, where they are subject to review.
China and other developing nations were not required to reduce emissions under Kyoto or file regular greenhouse-gas "inventories." Now that they have pledged voluntary controls, the United States wants their emissions actions to be "measurable, reportable and verifiable."
The detailed talks on a range of issues - from emissions commitments, to preventing deforestation, to transferring clean-energy technology - reached an impasse on Wednesday when developing nations objected to the process that produced a core draft document.
Environment ministers planned to work late into the night on draft texts outlining curbs on greenhouse gas emissions as part of a 193-nation deal due today to slow climate change.
The talks, deadlocked for 24 hours, resumed after Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen dropped plans to present his own compromise texts. His plan had been opposed by poor nations.
"Time is against us, let's stop posturing," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a speech. "A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and every one of us."
He proposed a late-night meeting of leaders, saying time was running out.
The talks have made little progress since they were launched in late 2007 with a deadline of a deal by the end of the UN climate conference.
"The United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing US$100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference.
China countered with its own offer to open its books on efforts to cut emissions.
Clinton made the offer contingent on reaching a broader agreement at the climate conference about "transparency," a reference to US insistence that China allow some international review of how it controls the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that create global warming.
China said it is willing to provide explanations and clarifications about its actions to control carbon emissions.
Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said China is ready for "dialogue and cooperation that is not intrusive, that does not infringe on China's sovereignty."
Environment ministers, having taken over from lower-level negotiators, pressed yesterday in hopes of producing partial agreements to put before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, US President Barack Obama and more than 110 other leaders at today's summit.
Such accords might include long-term goals for financing climate aid, and monitoring of emissions controls.
The Clinton offer represented the first time the US government has publicly cited a figure in discussions over long-term financing to help poorer countries build sea walls against rising oceans, cope with unusual drought and deal with other impacts of climate change, while also financing renewable-energy and similar projects.
The US$100 billion, a number first suggested by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, falls short of what experts say would be needed. The World Bank and others estimate the long-term climate costs for poorer nations, from 2020 or so, would likely total hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
China and other developing countries say the target should be in the range of US$350 billion.
In addition, the developing nations want long-term financial support based on stable revenue sources, such as a global aviation tax.
"It's good there's now been a statement of support for a clear number on long-term finance," UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said of the US offer. "This discussion will have to take place with other parties, whether they feel that sum is adequate."
More immediately, the conference has been discussing a short-term climate fund to help developing countries - a US$10 billion-a-year, three-year program.
European Union leaders last week committed to supplying US$3.6 billion a year through 2012.
On Wednesday, Japan, seeking to "contribute to the success" of Copenhagen, announced it would kick in US$5 billion a year for three years.
US funding is hovering at only around US$1 billion this year, and Clinton, when asked, did not specify how much Washington would contribute to the "fast start" package.
"We'll do our proportion of 'fast start'," she said.
De Boer commented afterward, "I'm keenly looking forward to hearing what the US contribution to that fund will be."
The "transparency" issue relates to recent pledges by such major developing countries as China, India and Brazil to rein in the growth of their emissions by specific amounts - on a voluntary basis.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialized nations that must cut their emissions - not including the US, which rejects Kyoto - are required to file detailed reports to the UN, where they are subject to review.
China and other developing nations were not required to reduce emissions under Kyoto or file regular greenhouse-gas "inventories." Now that they have pledged voluntary controls, the United States wants their emissions actions to be "measurable, reportable and verifiable."
The detailed talks on a range of issues - from emissions commitments, to preventing deforestation, to transferring clean-energy technology - reached an impasse on Wednesday when developing nations objected to the process that produced a core draft document.
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