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Momentum grows for Copenhagen climate deal
Source: Agencies |
November 28, 2009, Saturday
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WORLD leaders yesterday rallied to a diplomatic offensive to forge a U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen next month and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said an agreement was "within reach".
Ban, and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen who will host the Dec. 7-18 U.N. climate talks, hailed what they portrayed as a growing international momentum toward a pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.
"Our common goal is to achieve a firm foundation for a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010. I am confident that we are on track to do this," Ban told a summit of Commonwealth leaders in Trinidad and Tobago.
"Each week brings new commitments and pledges -- from industrialized countries, emerging economies and developing countries alike," he added.
"An agreement is within reach ... We must seal a deal in Copenhagen," Ban said. He, Rasmussen and French President Nicloas Sarkozy attended the summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth as special guests to lobby yesterday for international consensus on a climate pact.
Rasmussen said Denmark had received an "overwhelmingly positive" response to its invitation to world leaders to attend the talks next months. "More than 85 heads of state and government have told us they are coming to Copenhagen, and many are still positively considering," he said.
He urged major developed countries to deliver firm commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to "put figures on the table" for "up-front" financing to help poor nations combat climate change.
"The need for money on the table -- that is what we want to achieve in Copenhagen," Rasmussen told a news conference later.
A framework accord in Copenhagen would also need to set a deadline for finalizing a detailed treaty, he told Reuters.
Rasmussen and Ban welcomed an earlier proposal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the creation of a US$10 billion-a-year fund to help developing countries battle the effects of global warming. Brown said such financing should be made available as early as next year, well before any new climate deal takes effect.
'CANNOT WAIT UNTIL 2013'
"We face a climate emergency: we cannot wait until 2013 to begin taking action," Brown said.
Sarkozy, who called for an "ambitious global accord" on climate, also made a similar proposal for what Rasmussen termed a "Copenhagen launch fund" that would quickly channel money to poor states to help them counter global warming and adapt their development models to requirements to reduce carbon pollution.
Most nations have given up hopes of finalizing a detailed legal climate treaty text in Copenhagen, but prospects for achieving a broad political framework pact have been brightened this week by public promises of greenhouse gas curbs by China and the United States, the world's biggest emitters.
An upbeat Rasmussen said: "A strong deal -- sealed at the leaders level -- will serve as a clear and detailed guidance for negotiators to quickly finalize a legal framework."
"Copenhagen is capable of delivering the turning point we all want ... From here on it's a matter of political will".
Ban dismissed suggestions that the Copenhagen meeting would be merely another "talk shop". "It will be a very substantive and concrete negotiating process," he told reporters.
Asked about reservations recently expressed by Canada about whether a binding detailed climate treaty was possible, Rasmussen said: "I don't think there is any contradiction between wishful thinking and realistic thinking".
'EXISTENTIAL THREAT'
The 53-nation Commonwealth group, which represents more than a quarter of the global population, bringing together wealthy nations like Britain, Canada and Australia with some of the world's smallest states, earlier launched a diplomatic push to drum up momentum for a comprehensive climate agreement.
"On this, the eve of the U.N. Copenhagen summit on climate change, the Commonwealth has an opportunity to lead once more," Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who heads the group comprising mostly former British colonies, said at the summit opening.
Nearly half of the Commonwealth's members are small island states which are directly threatened by rising sea levels caused by global warming, and developing nations are appealing for financial aid from rich governments to help them counter climate change and reduce carbon pollution.
The accord the United Nations is aiming for in Copenhagen would cover tougher emissions targets, climate financing for poorer nations and transfer of clean-energy technology.
The Commonwealth is putting at the forefront of the climate debate the cases of tiny island states like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Tuvalu and Kiribati in the Pacific, whose existence would be threatened by rises in ocean levels.
Rasmussen said these faced "immediate existential threat" and "cannot afford the luxury of a failure in Copenhagen".
The climate treaty, now expected to be adopted as a final text only next year, will replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
Ban, and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen who will host the Dec. 7-18 U.N. climate talks, hailed what they portrayed as a growing international momentum toward a pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.
"Our common goal is to achieve a firm foundation for a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010. I am confident that we are on track to do this," Ban told a summit of Commonwealth leaders in Trinidad and Tobago.
"Each week brings new commitments and pledges -- from industrialized countries, emerging economies and developing countries alike," he added.
"An agreement is within reach ... We must seal a deal in Copenhagen," Ban said. He, Rasmussen and French President Nicloas Sarkozy attended the summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth as special guests to lobby yesterday for international consensus on a climate pact.
Rasmussen said Denmark had received an "overwhelmingly positive" response to its invitation to world leaders to attend the talks next months. "More than 85 heads of state and government have told us they are coming to Copenhagen, and many are still positively considering," he said.
He urged major developed countries to deliver firm commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to "put figures on the table" for "up-front" financing to help poor nations combat climate change.
"The need for money on the table -- that is what we want to achieve in Copenhagen," Rasmussen told a news conference later.
A framework accord in Copenhagen would also need to set a deadline for finalizing a detailed treaty, he told Reuters.
Rasmussen and Ban welcomed an earlier proposal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the creation of a US$10 billion-a-year fund to help developing countries battle the effects of global warming. Brown said such financing should be made available as early as next year, well before any new climate deal takes effect.
'CANNOT WAIT UNTIL 2013'
"We face a climate emergency: we cannot wait until 2013 to begin taking action," Brown said.
Sarkozy, who called for an "ambitious global accord" on climate, also made a similar proposal for what Rasmussen termed a "Copenhagen launch fund" that would quickly channel money to poor states to help them counter global warming and adapt their development models to requirements to reduce carbon pollution.
Most nations have given up hopes of finalizing a detailed legal climate treaty text in Copenhagen, but prospects for achieving a broad political framework pact have been brightened this week by public promises of greenhouse gas curbs by China and the United States, the world's biggest emitters.
An upbeat Rasmussen said: "A strong deal -- sealed at the leaders level -- will serve as a clear and detailed guidance for negotiators to quickly finalize a legal framework."
"Copenhagen is capable of delivering the turning point we all want ... From here on it's a matter of political will".
Ban dismissed suggestions that the Copenhagen meeting would be merely another "talk shop". "It will be a very substantive and concrete negotiating process," he told reporters.
Asked about reservations recently expressed by Canada about whether a binding detailed climate treaty was possible, Rasmussen said: "I don't think there is any contradiction between wishful thinking and realistic thinking".
'EXISTENTIAL THREAT'
The 53-nation Commonwealth group, which represents more than a quarter of the global population, bringing together wealthy nations like Britain, Canada and Australia with some of the world's smallest states, earlier launched a diplomatic push to drum up momentum for a comprehensive climate agreement.
"On this, the eve of the U.N. Copenhagen summit on climate change, the Commonwealth has an opportunity to lead once more," Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who heads the group comprising mostly former British colonies, said at the summit opening.
Nearly half of the Commonwealth's members are small island states which are directly threatened by rising sea levels caused by global warming, and developing nations are appealing for financial aid from rich governments to help them counter climate change and reduce carbon pollution.
The accord the United Nations is aiming for in Copenhagen would cover tougher emissions targets, climate financing for poorer nations and transfer of clean-energy technology.
The Commonwealth is putting at the forefront of the climate debate the cases of tiny island states like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Tuvalu and Kiribati in the Pacific, whose existence would be threatened by rises in ocean levels.
Rasmussen said these faced "immediate existential threat" and "cannot afford the luxury of a failure in Copenhagen".
The climate treaty, now expected to be adopted as a final text only next year, will replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
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