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UN Climate Change Conference - Source: Reuters -
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China has told participants at UN climate change negotiations it
sees no possibility of achieving an operational accord to tackle
global warming this week, an official involved in the talks said on
Thursday.
Dozens of heads of state are descending on the Danish capital to
address the conference, hoping to sign a new pact to curb
greenhouse gas emissions on Friday.
The official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the
Chinese had instead suggested issuing "a short political
declaration of some sort," but it was not clear what that
declaration would say.
The official said negotiations were continuing in an attempt to
reach a breakthrough that would allow a more meaningful agreement
to be signed.
US President Barack Obama has called for an "operational accord" -
essentially a political agreement with teeth that can get countries
working to cut or curb their greenhouse gas emissions while a more
formal and binding treaty is hammered out in 2010.
Some ministers warned that slow, often stalled talks during the
December 7-18 summit meant it was staring at failure.
"We may not get there on the substance. It is quite possible we'll
fail on the substance. But at least let's give it a try," said
Britain's energy and climate minister Ed Miliband.
"At the moment the problem is we're not giving it a
try."
Developed and developing nations are at odds over who should cut
emissions, how deep the cuts should be and how much funding should
be provided to poor countries to help them shift to greener growth
and adapt to a warmer world.
Leaders coming
Roughly 120 heads of state and government are expected to show up
in Copenhagen in the next two days, with Obama planning to arrive
on Friday morning.
Speakers are lined up to address the summit until the small hours
of the morning, including political heavyweights such as Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel,
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva and French President
Nicolas Sarkozy.
But rather than an ironed-out final document, leaders will find
draft texts littered with incomplete choices, exposing long-running
rifts between rich and poor countries on how to split the cost of
fighting climate change.
Denmark said it was trying to simplify several complex draft
negotiating texts to help the leaders agree upon a
deal.
But developing nations rejected Denmark's effort to select small
negotiating groups to storm through the labored draft texts, saying
the process had to be fully inclusive.
China told Denmark on Wednesday night it was siding with
developing nations and argued it was not empowered to change the
process by delegating to the small negotiating groups.
While the overall picture appears bleak, there has been some
progress in areas critical to reaching a deal.
Africa dramatically scaled back its expectations for climate aid
from rich nations, and Japan pledged about $15 billion in public
funds to 2012 to help poor countries adapt to a warmer world and
cut their emissions.
Talks on a UN-backed system to pay poorer nations to curb
deforestation have advanced, and the United States pledged $1.4
billion in short-term funds to conserve tropical forests.
A major sticking point between the world's top emitters, the United
States and China, has been the question of how they will prove they
are sticking to emission-curbing plans.
Earlier, China had signalled it might find a way to end the
stand-off, dropping previous hardline language and suggesting
"national communications" on emissions that the Kyoto Protocol
already requires of developing nations could hold a
solution.
"The convention has a very clear stipulation as to the operation
of a national communication system," Chinese delegate Su Wei
said.
"It will not be difficult for us to find a solution to this
problem (verification), as long as we adhere to the principles of
the convention, it is not a crucial problem," he said.
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