US President Barack Obama and other world leaders took stalled climate talks into their own hands yesterday, holding an emergency meeting to come up with a political agreement to salvage a conference marked by deep divisions between rich and poor countries.
Neither Obama nor Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) offered any new commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions as they addressed the UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Wen skipped the high-level meeting, sending an envoy instead.
With the talks in disarray yesterday, many delegates had been looking toward China and the US — the world’s two biggest carbon polluters — to deepen their pledges to cut emissions to salvage a deal in Copenhagen.
“We are ready to get this done today, but there has to be movement on all sides to recognize that is better for us to act rather than talk,” Obama said, insisting on a transparent way to monitor each nation’s pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Wen told delegates that China’s voluntary targets of reducing its carbon intensity by 40 percent to 45 percent would require “tremendous efforts.”
“We will honor our word with real action,” Wen said.
China has been criticized at the two-week summit for not offering stronger carbon emissions targets and for resisting international monitoring of its actions. After the impromptu high-level meeting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said progress in the climate talks was being held back by China.
An early draft of the climate agreement called for rich countries to mobilize US$30 billion over the next three years to help poor countries cope with the effects of global warming, scaling up to US$100 billion a year by 2020.
It also called for continued negotiations on targets for emission cuts, with a deadline of a climate conference in Mexico City next December.
The lack of progress meant Obama changed the word “agreement” from his prepared speech to negotiators to “framework I just outlined.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told climate negotiators that “the finishing line is in sight,” reminding them that “the world is watching.”
Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva told the joint session of negotiators how frustrated he was that the job was left to heads of state after talks ran into the wee hours of the morning yesterday.
“I am not sure if such an angel or wise man will come down to this plenary and put in our minds the intelligence that we lacked,” Lula said. “I believe in God. I believe in miracles.”
To move the talks forward, Lula said Brazil, a developing country, would give money to help other developing countries cope with the costs of global warming.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the US president met with world leaders yesterday from wealthy nations, such as Australia, the UK, France and Germany, and developing countries such as Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Colombia.
China and Russia, both seen as key participants in climate change discussions, were also at the meeting with Obama.
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