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World leaders try to save floundering climate summit
World leaders began arriving at the United Nations climate summit on Tuesday, seeking to give a shot in the arm to the floundering talks after warnings that the whole event was at risk of ending in failure. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were among the heavyweights expected in the Danish capital where officials and climate ministers have struggled to make any progress since the marathon meeting began eight days ago. "I appeal to all world leaders ... to redouble efforts to find the room for compromise, to make a final push in this final stretch," Ban told reporters in New York before flying to the Danish capital. "Time is running out ... There is no time for posturing or blaming," he said. "If everything is left to leaders to resolve at the last minute, we risk having a weak deal or no deal at all. And this would be a failure of potentially catastrophic consequence." The summit, which reaches its climax on Friday when 120 heads of state huddle in the Danish capital, has been billed as one of the most important gatherings of the post-World War II era. The conference's goal is to agree an outline deal of national pledges to curb carbon emissions and set up a mechanism to provide billions of dollars in help for poor countries in the firing line of climate change. But deep divisions remain over how the tab split, with developing countries demanding that their rich counterparts implement a 40% in carbon emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. You can stick of fork in it. It's dead Jim. Posted by: Besoeker 2009-12-15 |
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