Copenhagen Summit -
US And China To Make Concessions
US
and China, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, have
indicated desire to make concessions on climate Change deals.
China signalled concessions on the monitoring of emission curbs
while the US said it would commit money for developing
countries.
These concessions are coming against the backdrop of sharp
divisions among delegates, walk outs, street protests and
warning from world leaders on the consequences of missing this
great opportunity to sign a climate change deal in Copenhagen.
Denmark's Lars Lokke Rasmussen called late-night talks with a
group of 26 influential world leaders on how to unblock
negotiations.
"We discussed how we can make progress and we had a very
fruitful, constructive dialogue... for almost two hours," he
told reporters.
After the leaders left, their aides continued working on a
political agreement for them to inspect later.
"We tried to find an umbrella political accord, if you like,"
said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who also holds
the rotating presidency of the European Union.
"We tried to advance the main points and have asked the 'sherpas'
to work on the text through the night so we can discuss them
tomorrow (Friday) morning."
In another development, President Obama may reach an agreement
in principle on nuclear arms reduction with his Russian
counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, a senior US official said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her administration
was prepared to help establish funding of $100bn a year for
developing countries if a deal emerged that met US requirements.
The key US demand is "transparency" from China, seen as a must
if the US Senate is to pass legislation controlling emissions.
While Beijing has been hostile to this notion, Chinese Vice
Foreign Minister He Yafei said China was ready to engage in
"dialogue and co-operation that is not intrusive, that does not
infringe on China's sovereignty".
Earlier, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called
for all states, both developed and developing, to be flexible
about verification.
He indicated the possibility of setting up an international
mechanism for monitoring emission cuts.
According to the International Energy Agency's World Energy
Outlook to achieve that goal, global emissions should be kept at
or below 44 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
in 2020.
But if enacted, the current maximum pledges from developed
countries would leave emissions 1.9Gt above that figure; minimum
pledges would mean missing the target by 4.2Gt.
Developing nations want rich nations to cut emissions by at
least 25% by 2020 - rich nations are reluctant to go so far and
want developing countries to curb emissions too
Despite this expected concessions, Keith Allott, head of climate
change for WWF in Britain said "the stark message for world
leaders at Copenhagen is that the proposals on the table -
especially from industrialised countries - fall far short of
what the world needs,"
BBC/ Qasim
