Copenhagen: World leaders tried to rescue a global climate agreement yesterday but the failure of leading greenhouse gas emitters China and the US to come up with new proposals blocked chances of an ambitious deal.
US President Barack Obama and other leaders are trying to reach consensus on carbon emissions cuts, financial aid to poor nations, temperature caps and international scrutiny of emissions curbs. There has been progress in some areas, but gaps remain over emissions targets and monitoring, delegates said.
Blame game
Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said the US and China held the key to a deal. The US came late to the table with commitments to tackle climate change, he said. China's resistance to monitoring was a serious obstacle.
"And the great victims of this is the big group of developing countries. The EU really wanted to reach out to the big group of developing countries. That was made impossible because of the great powers," Carlgren said.
"We are ready to get this done today but there has to be movement on all sides, to recognise that it is better for us to act than talk," Obama said in a speech.
"These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades and we have very little to show for it other than an increase, an acceleration of the climate change phenomenon. The time for talk is over."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked leaders to act fast.
No comments:
Post a Comment