Draft text 'threatens' UN climate deal

[joeblow]

Draft text 'threatens' UN climate deal
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:11:49 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=1 ... id=3510208



Denmark's Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard delivers a speech at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

Developing countries criticize decision of a Danish document on climate change that poor countries, rather than the wealthy, would have to bear the burden to curb greenhouse gases.

At the heart of a clash on the second day of the 12-day summit, the leaked document at the 192-nation UN climate conference in Copenhagen provoked poor countries and activists who complained that the Danish hosts had pre-empted the negotiations with their draft proposal, prepared before the conference began.

"The behind-the-scenes negotiation tactics under the Danish presidency have been focusing on pleasing the rich and powerful countries rather than serving the majority of states who are demanding a fair and ambitious solution," said Kim Carstensen, head of the climate initiative for the environmental group the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The Danish proposal would allow rich industrialized countries to cut fewer emissions while poorer nations would face tougher limits on greenhouse gases and more conditions on money available to adapt.

The draft proposal for a political agreement "threatens the success" of UN climate talks in Copenhagen, said Sudan's Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, who heads the Group of 77.

The text is a "serious violation that threatens the success of the Copenhagen negotiating process," he said.

This decade, 2000-2009, is on track to become the warmest on record for planet Earth since records began in 1850, said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

In some areas, including parts of Africa and central Asia, this will probably be the warmest year, but overall, 2009 is expected to be the fifth-warmest year on record.

FTP/AKM
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