NEW DELHI/COPENHAGEN – The world should agree to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels as part of a UN climate pact in Copenhagen in mid-December, according to a suggested text by hosts Denmark.
The text said rich countries should account for 80 per cent of the global emission cuts by 2050. But it did not spell out shorter-term emission targets for rich countries, a key demand from poorer nations.
India, the world’s number four emitter, said it opposed the suggested targets.
Denmark, meanwhile, insisted it was merely consulting and had made no formal proposals for breaking deadlock between rich and poor nations at the December 7-18th meeting.
“If the Denmark draft is any indication, then we are heading to a dead end,” Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh said in New Delhi.
China and India have opposed agreeing to a goal of halving world emissions unless rich nations, which have burnt fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, take the lead by setting far tougher reductions by 2020.
“The Danish government has not put forward a proposal,” Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said.
Danish climate minister Connie Hedegaard, who will preside at Copenhagen, said earlier consultations were “based on a variety of draft text proposals”. She added that Denmark would not propose any formal compromises until the meeting.
The text also suggests that the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, should peak in 2020. Emissions have been rising fast in recent years but are set to dip by up to 3 per cent in 2009 because of the global recession.
The UN talks have run out of time to settle a legally-binding deal after arguments between rich and poor nations about who should cut emissions, by how much and who should pay.
But hopes are growing that a substantive political pact can be agreed at the December meeting, including setting a 2010 deadline for tying up a legal text. US president Barack Obama will attend on December 9th with most other leaders arriving at the end.
Developing countries led by China and India are expected to table a text in Copenhagen today that they would like to be turned into the basis for negotiations. China, the US, Russia and India are the top emitters.
Mr Rasmussen has said he wants a 5-8 page “politically binding” agreement, with annexes outlining each country’s obligations. Developed countries such as Britain and France have put an offer of a $10-billion-a-year (€6.66bn) Copenhagen Launch Fund on the table, but while developing countries welcomed what they called “interim financing”, they said much more, perhaps up to $300 billion (€200 billion), might be needed to make a global climate deal work.
In Canberra, Australia’s key policy to fight global warming limped closer to defeat yesterday with parliament set to delay or reject the government’s carbon emissions trade scheme, raising the chances of an early election.
In Sydney, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, also urged governments to take climate change seriously.
“In some cases in order to protect global issues, some sacrifice of national interest [is needed],” he said. – (Reuters)