Their comments after EU ambassadors met in Brussels confirmed the 27-nation bloc’s commitment to unilateral target carbon dioxide emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade.

Some EU countries such as Poland, Italy, Cyprus and Malta had opposed making the more ambitious conditional offer because of concerns that it would be too costly for industry.

“Italy and Poland said at the meeting that they were concerned but they wouldn’t stand in the way,” an EU envoy said.

Before United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen in December, the EU offered to deepen its cuts to 30 percent of 1990 levels if other rich countries made similar efforts.

Ambassadors agreed the EU should sign up to the accord with the 20 percent cuts in a letter to be sent to the U.N. on Thursday, but that the 30 percent conditional offer should still be made, even if the conditions behind it are far from being met.

The meeting in the Danish capital ended without agreement on binding cuts to climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions, leaving countries until January 31 to submit their own plans.

Experts say the total cuts offered there by rich countries amount to no more than 18 percent and fall far short of the 25-40 percent that U.N. scientists outline as necessary to avert dangerous climate change.

The world is on track for temperatures to rise to 3.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, which would bring catastrophic melting of ice sheets and rising seas, some scientists say.

Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands were among the countries that defended the 30 percent offer.

“The UK remains committed to the conditional offer of 30 percent to stay on the table to ensure that we do not lose the momentum that has been generated over the last few months,” said an official from Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Source Reuters

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Strengths and weaknesses of the UN system for dealing with climate change were highlighted by the process leading to the Copenhagen Accord.

When leaders from USA, China, Brazil, India and South Africa sat down together Friday night to draft the Copenhagen Accord which on Saturday became the outcome of the UN conference on climate change, it marked a process that was quite different from the normal procedures of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This has led some spectators to call for a change.

“We need to start investigating other options, or at a minimum start using some alternative forums,” Andrew Light, Coordinator of International Climate Policy at the Center for American Progress, tells Reuters, suggesting the Group of 20 (G-20) and the Major Economies Forum.

Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Resource Institute’s climate and energy program, says:

“I don’t think it’s the end of the UN’s climate role but it’s a new model inside of it (…) heads of state came in and crafted a deal a bit independently of the UN process. There’ll still be many roles for the UNFCCC to fulfil.”

Even though Brazil was part of the somewhat alternative process at the Copenhagen summit, its climate change ambassador strongly advocates for UNFCCC to remain the center of future negotiations.

“You won’t get an agreement involving only a limited number of countries. Perhaps on some occasions they can be a driving force to mobilize the others, but they will never close a deal by themselves, because this deal will lack legitimacy. So the UN will certainly remain at the heart of it,” Sergio Serra tells Reuters, while Dessima Williams, head of AOSIS (the Alliance of Small Island States) comments:

“The UN process is secure. I think there may have been confidences jolted but the process is not going to be derailed. What is necessary now is some fence mending and yes some confidence building around the outcome of the conference.”

Another diversion in procedure is the fact that the Copenhagen Accord has not been adopted by the COP15, only “taken note of”. This implies that the countries that are parties to the UNFCCC may now decide to sign or not to sign on. According to Danish daily Politiken, 188 countries are likely to sign on. Only five countries – Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan and Venezuela – seem unwilling to sign on at this point.

“We have made the vehicle ready. Now it is up to the countries to decide if they want to ride it. I hope the many (countries) that supported the text this night (Friday night) will sign on, although many will probably be uneasy as to what that would lead to,” Politiken quotes UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer (photo above) as saying Saturday.

According to Politiken, Yvo de Boer judges the Copenhagen conference to have been “a political success”:

“Never before have we seen so many world leaders gathered in the stride for the climate. Even though it appeared to be very difficult (to get an agreement) 115 heads of state or governments chose to come to Copenhagen and engage. This is what we need to build on.” (Photo: Scanpix/AFP)

Source UNFCCC

World leaders insist that the climate deal clinched in desperation at the UN summit in Copenhagen is the best that can be done as they return home to a lashing from critics.

Newspapers have widely called the summit accord a failure and experts such as the head of a Nobel Peace prize-winning climate panel says ‘urgent’ action is now needed.

US President Barack Obama acknowledged that all of the world’s polluters will quickly have to do more, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the critics will only hold up the battle against rising temperatures that threaten devastating floods, storms and drought.

Obama returned to the White House and said ‘extremely difficult and complex negotiations’ had been needed in Copenhagen.

‘This breakthrough lays the foundation for international action in the years to come,’ he said.

But even the US leader said ‘we will have to build on the momentum’ and get the US Congress to pass mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Merkel, who will host a new international meeting in Germany in 2010, hit back at the critics.

‘It is a first step toward a new world climate order, nothing more but also nothing less,’ she told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

‘Those who are only putting Copenhagen down are helping those who want to blockade rather than move forward.’

Germany will host a follow-up meeting of environment ministers in Bonn in June, ahead of another summit in Mexico City next December. ‘We now need to build on Copenhagen,’ she said.

The Danish chair of the UN climate summit, Connie Hedegaard, said on Sunday she thinks it will be difficult to gather together so many world leaders again for a new conference, though the effort must be made.

‘I think it will be very difficult,’ she told AFP, but added that the world still needs to set binding objectives on reducing carbon emissions. ‘If not I’m afraid that too much time will pass before the world does what is necessary’ to stop global warming, she said.

The Copenhagen Accord, only passed by a procedural motion after two weeks of tense negotiations, has been widely condemned as a backdoor deal that excludes the poor and dooms the world to disastrous climate change.

The agreement was assembled by the leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and major European nations, after it became clear the 194 nation summit was in danger of failure.

China, the world’s top polluter, has given the warmest welcome to a summit that experts say it has benefitted from by making the fewest concessions.

‘With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results,’ Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a statement.

At the same time China’s foreign ministry spokesman on Sunday hit out at critics of the closed nature of the accord, saying Beijing had always maintained close contact and coordination with all countries during the summit.

‘China is a developing nation, we… firmly maintain the development rights of developing countries, and firmly maintain the unity and coordination of emerging nations,’ Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

The summit set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius but did not spell out the important global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 that are the key to holding down temperatures.

The summit promised $US100 billion ($A112.78 billion) for poor nations that risk bearing the brunt of the global warming fallout, but has not given a fixed payout plan.

So far, the United States has promised to contribute $US3.6 billion ($A4.06 billion) in climate funds for the 2010-2012 period, with Japan contributing a total of $US11 billion ($A12.41 billion) over the same period, and the European Union $US10.6 billion ($A11.95 billion).

Even UN chief General Ban Ki-moons admitted the agreement had failed to win global consensus and would disappoint many who demanded stronger action against climate change.

‘Many will say that it lacks ambition,’ Ban told the end of the summit. ‘Nonetheless, you have achieved much.’

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said: ‘Developing countries, certainly Africa, are very concerned and very suspicious of the developed countries on whether they are really genuine in making these offers.’

‘In the next few weeks and months we will have to work very hard to see that, before the end of 2010 if not earlier, we get a binding agreement that really moves action in the direction we need,’ he told the Indian NDTV television channel.

‘We really have to move on rather quickly to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. There is growing evidence of the impacts of climate change and if we delay action these impacts are going to become much worse, far more serious,’ he warned.

The Wall Street Journal called the Copenhagen deal ‘a pre-emptive dead letter because countries like China, Brazil and India said they were unwilling to accept anything that depressed their economic growth’.

Source

Source MSNBC

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Emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen summit will lead to global temperatures rising by an average of three degrees, a confidential UN analysis obtained by The Guardian reveals.

A confidential UN draft marked “do not distribute” and “initial draft” shows a gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of carbon emissions between the present pledges and the required level of 44 gigatonnes that is required to stay below a two degree temperature rise, The Guardian reports.

According to the “Stern Review” by economist Nicholas Stern for the British government, a warming of three or four degrees Celsius will result in tens to hundreds of millions more people being flooded each year due to rising sea levels. “There will be serious risks and increasing pressures for coastal protection in Southeast Asia (Bangladesh and Vietnam), small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and large coastal cities, such as Tokyo, New York, Cairo and London,” the report shows. 

Greenpeace describes the confidential document as “explosive” and showing that the numbers on the table at the moment would lead to nothing less than “climate breakdown” and an “extraordinarily dangerous situation for humanity”.

“The UN is admitting in private that the pledges made by world leaders would lead to a three degree rise in temperatures. The science shows that it could lead to the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, crippling water shortages across South America and Australia and the near-extinction of tropical coral reefs, and that’s just the start of it,” Greenpeace campaigner Joss Garman tells the newspaper.

Source COP15

Here is the plan!

We have all the heads of state of the most powerful nations on the planet all in the one place at the one time. We need them to no longer be politicians but to learn how to become statesmen/women. The Copenhagen Climate Change summit (COP15) may be a singular defining moment of the 21st century for our children, but it won’t be unless we make them seal a global agreement.

Let’s keep them there until they do!

Baggage handlers of Denmark ……….. It’s up to you. No luggage….. no boarding pass!

Sorry Airforce One – No take-off clearance!

World leaders have begun the final hours of direct negotiations. The UK Prime Minister has directly appealed to Avaaz to build the tidal wave of public pressure needed to reach a deal that stops catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees.

Click to sign the petition for a real deal– the campaign already has a staggering 11 million supporters — over the next 48 hours let’s make it the largest petition in history! The name of every signer is being read out right now in the summit hall — sign on at the link below and forward this email to everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen

We are making history in Copenhagen. A group of young people have sat down in the middle of the summit and begun reading the names of every person who signs the petition for a real deal. Another group is doing the same ‘petition reading sit-in’ in the Canadian Prime Minister’s office, and rumours are that more such actions will happen tomorrow. On an emergency conference call with 3000 Avaaz members today, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:

“What you’re doing through the internet around the world is absolutely crucial to setting the agenda. In the next 48 hours, don’t underestimate your effect on the leaders here in Copenhagen”

Earlier, millions watched the Avaaz vigil inside the summit on TV, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children:

“We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell.
“We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell.
“We marched at Copenhagen — and we WILL get a Real Deal.”

Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next 48 hours. How will our children remember this moment? Let’s tell them we did all we could.

If you have not signed this for you children yet The Greenhouse Neutal Foundation asks you to do it now. Please click this link as sign.

The climate change summit in Copenhagen was in jeopardy tonight with the complex negotiations falling far behind schedule as the climate secretary, Ed Miliband, warned of a “farce”.

With just two days remaining, the inability to overcome disagreements about the shape of a deal to combat global warming led to hours of inaction today , while outside the negotiations police clashed with protesters who broke through a security cordon but failed in an attempt to storm the conference centre.

“We have made no progress” said a source close to the talks. “What people don’t realise is that we are now not really ready for the leaders. These talks are now 18 hours late.”

More than 115 world leaders arrive tomorrow and on Friday and had expected only to bargain over the final details in a prepared draft agreement but the earlier impasse could condemn the talks to failure.

For the first time frustrated negotiators spoke openly of – at best – reaching a weak political agreement that would leave no clear way forward to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions.

That would mean the negotiations staying in limbo well into next year, increasing the damage caused by global warming.

The day saw thousands of protesters take to the streets to demand a strong deal by Friday but, while they clashed with police, they failed in their objective to enter the conference centre.

A key meeting of 25 government ministers from different countries, chosen to streamline the negotiations, was 18 hours behind track tonight , having failed to meet for the entire day. The group, along with another 25 “shadow” ministers, had been scheduled for its first meeting in the early hours of Wednesday but it was delayed. Ministers from developing countries were shocked to find that, instead of making progress on producing the slimmed-down draft agreement for the leaders, talks starting at 5.45am had seen the document increase in complexity.

Miliband said people around the world would be rightly furious if negotiators failed to get a deal because the talks were delayed not over substance, but over the process. “It would be a tragedy if we failed to agree because of the substance. It would be a farce if we failed to reach agreement because of the process,” he said.

“People will find it extraordinary that this conference that has been two years in the planning and involves 192 countries, which is such an important thing, such important stakes, is at the moment being stalled on points of order.”

There was, however, some progress on other important issues. The US and China appeared to resolve some of their differences and a proposal from the Ethiopian prime minister on climate funding closed the gap between rich and poor countries. At the heart of the impasse is the fate of the Kyoto protocol, signed in 1997. It is the only legally binding agreement on climate change and requires industrialised nations – but not developing nations – to cut their emissions. Rich nations want a fresh treaty, arguing the world has changed and the major emerging economies such and China and India must commit to curbing their huge and fast growing national emissions. But the developing nations argue that rich nations grew wealthy by polluting the atmosphere and must take primary responsibility for it, which can only be guaranteed by Kyoto.

China, India, South Africa and Brazil brought one half of the talks to a halt in expectation that the Danish presidency was going to introduce a new text which would effectively kill Kyoto. “Things are getting held up by procedural wrangling,” said Miliband. “People can kill this agreement with process arguments. It will be tragedy if we cannot reach an agreement on substance, but it will be a farce if we cannot agree on process.”

Source Guardian UK