Marlowe Hood And Richard Ingham Yahoo News 11 Dec 09;
COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Major players fired the first shots in a three-way battle on climate change on Friday, wrangling over a seven-page document proposed as the blueprint of a historic UN pact.
The world's No. 1 and 2 polluters, China and the United States, laid down markers in what promises to be a fiery week-long haggle while developing countries likened European leaders -- who had pledged more than 10 billion dollars in aid just hours before -- to "climate skeptics."
The text, seen by AFP, sees targets of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2.0 degrees Celsius (2.7 or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
It also foresees a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol boycotted by the United States.
But it is vague on climate funding, does not spell out a deadline for concluding a legally-binding treaty, and does not include a year by which emissions must peak -- all key negotiation issues.
The document will be debated by environment ministers from around the world, with the goal of sealing an endorsement at a summit on December 18 to be attended by more than 110 leaders.
"The text provides a basis to make the right political decisions," said Kim Carstensen of WWF.
"It contains many gaps, exposes rifts, but also clearly shows that an agreement is possible."
A political deal in Copenhagen would be followed by meetings in 2010 under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to flesh out key details.
The global pact would take effect from 2013, after current pledges expire under the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol.
On the question of a target for warming, the draft reads:
"Parties shall cooperate to avoid dangerous climate change, in keeping with the ultimate objective of the Convention, recognizing [the broad scientific view] that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed [2 C] [1.5 C]."
The lower temperature is embraced by small island states and many African nations badly threatened by climate change, while the higher target has been supported by rich nations and emerging giants such as China, India and Brazil.
The draft leaves open three possible targets for the overall reduction of global carbon emissions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels: by 50 percent, by 80 percent and by 95 percent.
Industrialised countries favour the 50-percent goal, while major emerging economies led by China have balked at any such target unless rich countries assume the near totality of the burden.
For rich countries, which acknowledge their historical responsibility for global warming, the bracketed options for CO2 cuts by 2050 range from 75-85 percent, "at least 80-95 percent", and "more than 95 percent", all measured against the same 1990 benchmark.
The text stands by a second, seven-year commitment period of the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol, the pact shunned by the United States, which runs out at the end of 2012.
US emissions targets -- and voluntary actions by developing countries -- would be included in an "appendix" under the UNFCCC.
A draft text in an parallel negotiation pool -- covering only parties to the Kyoto Protocol -- calls for rich-country commitments of greenhouse-gas cuts of 30 to 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990.
On the key question of funds to help poorer countries adopt lower carbon energy and shore up their defences against climate change, the draft text is vague.
"Scaled-up, predictable, new and additional, and adequate funding shall be provided," it says, but does not give figures.
The document allows for "fast-start" financing for three years starting in 2010 to help poor nations cope with warming, but does not specify an amount.
Rich countries have proposed 10 billion dollars per year during this period.
In Brussels, European Union (EU) agreed to give 7.2 billion euros (10.8 billion dollars) towards the 2010-2012 fund.
But the G77 bloc of developing countries scoffed loudly, denouncing it as a short-term political fix.
"They (the pledged funds) are not only insignificant, they actually breed even more distrust on the intention of European leaders on climate change," said the group's spokesman, Lumumba Stanislaus Dia-Ping of Sudan.
"Our view is that European leaders are acting as if they were climate skeptics," he told a press conference.
China, which is also aligned to the G77 group, likewise demanded that rich nations spell out long-term commitments on funding, while the United States said the text on emissions curbs meant China and other emerging giants would not be required to pull their weight.
"The United States is not going to do a deal without major developing countries stepping up," said chief US negotiator Todd Stern.
Draft deal gives lift to flagging climate talks
David Fogarty and Sunanda Creagh, Reuters 11 Dec 09;
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A draft climate pact unveiled on Friday revived hopes that U.N. talks might be able to pin down an international deal to fight global warming, but developing nations said they needed more cash from the rich.
With less than a week until more than 110 world leaders descend on the talks, the proposal that would at least halve global emissions by 2050 sought to bridge some of the long-standing rifts between rich and poor nations.
A European Union offer of 7.3 billion euros ($10.8 billion) of climate aid over the next three years was welcomed by the United Nations and the Danish hosts of the December 7-18 talks in Copenhagen.
"Things are progressing," said Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister who presides at the negotiations.
The first four days of talks moved so slowly that European Commission delegate Karl Falkenberg joked on Friday that progress was only visible under a magnifying glass.
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said the draft text marked a "step change" in the negotiations. "It's time to focus on the bigger picture," he told reporters.
The documents propose a global emissions goal for 2050, a target developing countries have opposed in the past, and omits figures for how many billions of dollars rich nations should give poorer ones to help them tackle climate change.
The text is also vague on when greenhouse gas emissions should peak.
China, now the world's largest emitter, said rich nations needed to provide long-term cash if they wanted the developing world to agree long-term emissions goals.
"I doubt the sincerity of developed countries in their commitment. Why are they not talking about a commitment of providing funds through 2050? That will make them credible when they are asking for an emissions reduction by 2050," said Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei.
African nations said they were still considering the draft, but were also unhappy about financing.
"What will it be used for? The developed countries found $1.4 trillion to combat the financial crisis. Now they're offering just $10 billion to fight climate change," said Kemal Djemouai, the Algerian chair of the African Group of nations.
Small islands that face being washed away by rising seas also put out a far more ambitious draft proposal they said was a minimum needed to ward off disastrous climate change.
They want a legally binding pact that Denmark says is now almost impossible to achieve, and one delegate from the tiny island state of Tuvalu warned that leaders of the most vulnerable states might prefer no deal to a toothless one.
Chief U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said the draft was a "constructive text" but a deal still hung in the balance.
Australia also gave a cautious response. "We've got a lot of work to do," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Copenhagen.
"Primarily the problem is this is not a document capable of delivering the environmental outcome the world needs."
"VERY, VERY DIFFICULT"
The draft text covers both an extension of the existing U.N. Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase ends in 2012, and a parallel track of talks which draws in those outside Kyoto, including the United States.
The text offers a range for global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of at least 50 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.
Developing nations led by China and India have in the past rejected signing up for a halving of world emissions by 2050 without more stringent short-term goals for developed nations.
For these emissions cuts the draft agreement proposes an average range laid out by a U.N. panel of climate scientists in 2007, of at least 25-40 percent, also from 1990 levels.
This might be acceptable to developing nations, though many have asked for more, but emissions cuts pledged so far from recession-hit developed nations total only about 14-18 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
"This is one of the main obstacles. We know that this is going to be very, very difficult," said Hedegaard, although she added that the goal was closer than ever before.
The text said developing nations, which say they need to emit more as they curb poverty, should either make a "substantial deviation" to slow the growth of their emissions by 2020 or slow growth 15-30 percent below projected levels.
This may create another obstacle by angering Japan, which on Friday threatened to drop a pledge to cut carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020 if the Kyoto Protocol is extended without emissions goals for the United States and China.
Businesses' unwillingness to share ideas and the remoteness of their summit from the main climate talks threatened to prevent a common industry voice which could cut the cost of a low-carbon shift, senior executives said on Friday.
Senior executives met at a separate location several miles from the U.N. talks, and accepted that the business lobby was split on climate action which could disadvantage energy-intensive sectors including cement and power generation.
"It's difficult to imagine one voice," Duke Energy Chief Executive Jim Rogers told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Gerard Wynn, Richard Cowan, Alister Doyle, and Chisa Fujioka in TOKYO, Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Copenhagen publishes draft text
Richard Black, BBC News 11 Dec 09;
Rich countries are being asked to raise their pledges on tackling climate change under a draft text of a possible final deal at the Copenhagen summit.
Documents prepared by the summit's chairmen call on developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25-45% from 1990 levels by 2020.
Analyses suggest that current pledges add up to about 18%.
The document leaves open the exact target for limiting temperature rise, amid disputes between various blocs.
Small island states and poorer nations of Africa and Latin America have called for the document to endorse the target of keeping the temperature rise since pre-industrial times below 1.5C (2.7F).
This is below the figure of 2C (3.6F), which was endorsed by the G8 and major developing economies in July, and implies the need for drastic emission cuts.
An analysis by the UK Met Office, released at this meeting, showed that meeting 1.5C would be "almost impossible" to meet without implementing measures to take carbon dioxide out of the air.
The temperature figures are listed as alternatives in the draft documents.
Work in progress
The texts are a long way short of constituting a final outcome document, as they leave open some of the most difficult points of the negotiations so far, including the legal form of any new agreement.
However, in a major concession to developing countries, it spells out that pledges for further reductions for developed countries inside the Kyoto Protocol - all except the US - will be managed under the protocol.
Developed countries would prefer an entirely new agreement.
The draft also leaves open the scale of financing to assist developing countries to curb emissions growth and to protect themselves against climate impacts.
Developing countries are demanding far more than richer countries currently believe is necessary, and are likely to demand a lot more clarity on the issue.
Small island states are particularly concerned about the need for firm, predictable adaptation funding.
They also want any final agreement to set a target year for when global emissions should peak and begin to fall - a concept that is presently absent from the draft.
At a European Council meeting in Brussels, EU leaders have agreed to pay 7.2bn euros ($10.6bn; £6.5bn) over the next three years to help developing nations adapt to climate change - a figure described by delegates from small island states and the Least Developed Countries bloc (LDCs) as "inadequate".
The temperature target is the biggest unresolved item in the texts.
But controversy is also likely over proposals to allow money from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to be used for nuclear power.
CDM funds are raised through levies on carbon trading, and are designed to help lower emissions at the lowest possible cost while assisting economic development in poor countries.
Tough bargaining still ahead at UN climate talks
John Heilprin And Arthur Max, Associated Press Yahoo News 11 Dec 09;
COPENHAGEN – After a week of U.N. climate talks, some money is finally on the table and a draft agreement has been circulated. Now the really hard bargaining begins.
The draft proposal was sent around Friday to the 192-nation conference, although it set no firm figures on financing or cutting greenhouse gas emissions. And the negotiations on sharing the burden are likely to still go down to the wire and await the arrival of the world's leaders next week.
To top it off, the United States and China — the world's top two carbon polluters — even got into a battle of words.
"It's time to begin to focus on the big picture," said Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate official. "The serious discussion on finance and targets has begun."
A much-disputed 188-page text was whittled down to a mere seven pages of stark options on how much global warming is acceptable and how deeply nations must individually and collectively cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Options ranged from nearly eliminating global emissions to cutting them in half by 2050.
The document forced countries to abandon long-held posturing on secondary topics and focus on crunch issues. Starting Saturday, environment ministers will be able to go through the 46 points of text one by one, checking off some and leaving the toughest for the 110 heads of state and government arriving at the end of next week.
Many countries voiced reservations about the structure of the document or some of its clauses. "But that's all right. That's what negotiations are all about," de Boer said.
Todd Stern, the special U.S. climate envoy, called the text "constructive" but singled out the section on helping poor countries lower their growth of carbon emissions as "unbalanced." He said the requirements on industrial countries were tougher than on developing nations and the section was not "a basis for negotiation."
Environmental groups welcomed the text as a step forward, although they lamented the absence of what they considered essential elements.
"It's a good pointer to a number of issues to be dealt with at the ministerial and even the head-of-state level over the next week," said Kim Carstensen of the environmental group WWF. "We're disappointed it does not include any clarity on what the legal outcome will be."
It said all countries together should reduce emissions by a range of 50 percent to 95 percent by 2050, and rich countries should cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, in both cases using 1990 as the baseline year.
So far, industrial nations' pledges to cut emissions have amounted to far less than the minimum.
After years of being bogged down in detail, the draft highlighted the broad goals the world must achieve to avoid irreversible change in climate that scientists say could bring many species to extinction and cause upheavals in many parts of the Earth.
The draft agreement, drawn up by Michael Zammit Cutajar of Malta, said global emissions of greenhouse gases should peak "as soon as possible," while avoiding a target year.
It called for new funding in the next three years by wealthy countries to help poor nations adapt to a changing climate, but mentioned no figures. And it made no specific proposals on long-term help for developing countries.
The funding is perhaps the hardest part.
As the draft was circulated, European Union leaders announced in Brussels after two days of tough talks that they would commit $3.6 billion (euro2.4 billion) a year until 2012 to a short-term fund for poor countries. Most of this money came from Britain, France and Germany. Many cash-strapped former East bloc countries balked at donating but eventually all gave at least a token amount to preserve the 27-nation bloc's unity.
Still unknown is how much the wealthier nations, such as the U.S. and Japan, will contribute.
Differences still remain between China and the United States.
Veteran China watchers said, however, that both countries were closer than they appeared. Some problems could be settled with some work on language, translation or simply being more specific about actions each country should take, said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
China's public stance remained unyielding, and Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei took Stern to task for remarks Wednesday that no U.S. climate money would go to Beijing. In unusually blunt language, He said Stern either "lacks common sense" or was "extremely irresponsible."
In China's view, the U.S. and other rich nations have a heavy historical responsibility to cut emissions, and any climate deal should take into account a country's development level.
China, the world's largest polluter, is grouped with the developing nations at the talks. But Stern said the U.S. doesn't consider China one of the neediest countries when it comes to giving those nations financial aid.
In downtown Copenhagen, police detained 75 people in the first street protests linked to the conference. About 200 people rallied in the area where corporate CEOs were meeting to discuss the role of business in global warming.
The protesters broke into small groups, banging drums and shouting, "Mind your business. This is our climate!" There were no reports of violence.
With an eye to the next phase of negotiations — talks among world leaders before the Dec. 18 conclusion of the conference — Greenpeace spokeswoman Tove Riding said she had a suggestion for any high-level official who might show up in Copenhagen thinking there's not enough time left to work out a deal.
"Cancel the speeches, cancel the fancy dinners, skip the photo opportunities and spend the time working," she said. Doing otherwise, she added, "would be like dining on the Titanic."
___
Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen and Karl Ritter in Copenhagen and Aoife White in Brussels contributed to this report.
World should at least halve CO2 by 2050: draft text
Reuters 11 Dec 09;
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The world should at least halve world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with rich nations taking the lead, according to a first draft text on Friday seeking to break deadlock on a new climate pact at U.N. talks.
"Parties shall cooperate to avoid dangerous climate change," according to the text, proposed by Michael Zammit Cutajar of Malta, who chairs talks on long-term action by all nations at the December 7-18 meeting on a new climate pact in Copenhagen.
The text offered a range for global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of either at least 50, 85 or 95 percent by 2050. More than 110 world leaders will attend a closing summit on December 18.
The numbers were bracketed, showing there is no agreement.
"Parties should collectively reduce global emissions by at least (50/85/95) percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and should ensure that global emissions continue to decline thereafter," according to the text.
It also offered options for rich nations' cuts in emissions starting at 75 percent and ranging up to more than 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
And it said developed nations should cut their emissions on average by at least 25-40 percent, ranging up to about 45 percent by 2020, also from 1990 levels.
Developing nations led by China and India have in the past rejected accepting a halving of world emissions by 2050 unless the rich take far tougher action to cut their emissions.
The text said developing nations should make a "substantial deviation" to slow the growth of their emissions by 2020, or slow the growth by 15-30 percent below projected levels by 2020.
