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UK envoy: Solve climate issues now, before leaders

2009-12-14 07:47:20

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer Michael Casey, Associated Press

Writer 56 mins ago

COPENHAGEN Climate negotiators pressed even harder Monday to reach a global

pact to slash greenhouse gases, acknowledging that the key issues of emissions

targets and financing for poor countries remained unresolved with only five

days to go to reach a deal.

British Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said Monday that it's up to him

and his counterparts in Copenhagen to help bridge that gap and "not to leave

everything" to the 100 world leaders including President Barack Obama who start

arriving Wednesday.

"There are still difficult issues of process and substance that we have to

overcome in the coming days," Miliband said. "Can we get the emission cuts we

need? We need higher ambition from others and we will be pushing for that."

A draft agreement distributed last week to the 192-nation conference set no

firm figures on financing or on cutting greenhouse gas emissions blamed for

global warming.

It said all countries together should reduce emissions by 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.

What negotiators and climate scientists do agree on is that global warming will

lead to dramatic changes that mean more widespread drought, greater flooding

along coastlines, stronger storms and the extinction of some species.

Miliband said countries also needed to offer more than fast-start financing for

developing countries, noting that the British have called for a yearly fund of

$100 billion by 2020. He also said nations must resolve disputes between rich

and poor countries over the best way to demonstrate what rich and poor

countries are doing to tackle emissions.

"What we cannot do is leave a whole slew of issues to the leaders," Miliband

said. "We need to get our act together and take action to resolve some of the

outstanding issues."

The draft continues the system for industrial countries set up in the 1997

Kyoto Protocol by which they are legally bound to targets for emission

reductions and face penalties if they fall short.

It makes no similar requirements of developing countries like China and India,

which have pledged to reduce the growth rate of emissions but reject the notion

of turning those voluntary pledges into legal commitments.

China now is the world's largest polluter, followed by the United States.

As talks continued Monday at the Bella Center, throngs of newly arrived

delegates, journalists and climate activists jammed the security and

accreditation lines, forcing police to shut down the subway stop at the

cavernous conference hall.

Meanwhile, police were on the lookout for new protests in the city center,

where more than 1,200 people were detained this weekend. Almost all of them

were released after questioning. About a dozen were arraigned on preliminary

charges of assaulting police officers or carrying box-cutters or other sharp

objects.

There were sporadic reports of vandalism across the city overnight Monday.

Police spokesman Henrik Moeller Jakobsen said 12 cars had been set on fire

including three vehicles belonging to Danish power company Dong Energy. Vandals

also smashed windows and threw red paint at the headquarters of the Danish

Immigration Service. It was not immediately clear whether those attacks were

related to the climate conference.

On Sunday, closed-door consultations focused on about a half-dozen plans on

financing for poor countries to deal with climate change. One joint proposal by

Mexico and Norway calls for a "Green Fund" for climate financing, starting with

$10 billion a year in 2013, and increasing to $30 billion to $40 billion a year

by 2020

Separately, a proposal aimed at saving the world's tropical forests suffered a

setback Sunday, when negotiators ditched plans for faster action on the problem

because of concerns that rich countries aren't willing to finance the plan. A

deal on deforestation a sizable global warming factor is considered a key

component of the larger pact.