Obama: no time for Copenhagen deal
Updated on 16 November 2009
President Obama has said that time has run out for a climate change deal this year. But could a late move by 40 poorer nations save the Copenhagen summit?
The environment secretary has acknowledged that a legally binding deal at the Copenhagen climate change summit in December was unlikely.
However, Ed Miliband has insisted that President Obama and other world leaders do need to be at the conference in order to get political consensus. Campaigners are concerned that uncertainty over the American president's attendance may cause further delays on a deal.
The host nation, Denmark has suggested delaying a legally binding deal until 2010 to focus on getting political consensus - a move backed by the US.
But the Alliance of Small Island States - which represents those most at risk from heatwaves, droughts, floods, disease and rising sea levels - says it want developed countries to take urgent action to cut emissions and come up with a binding legal text in Copenhagen.
"There was an assessment by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days," said US negotiator Michael Froman.
"Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the leaders.
"The Copenhagen agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion," said the Copenhagen talks host, who flew into Singapore to lay out his proposal over breakfast at an Asia-Pacific summit.
Rasmussen said the December talks should still agree key elements such as cuts in greenhouse gases for industrialised nations and funds to help developing nations. Copenhagen would also set a deadline for writing them into a legal text. The next major UN climate meeting is in Bonn in mid-2010.
"We are not aiming to let anyone off the hook," Rasmussen said after the meeting, which was attended by leaders of the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Australia and Indonesia.
French environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo said it was clear the main obstacle was the United States' slow progress in defining its own potential emissions cuts. "The problem is the United States, there's no doubt about that," said Borloo, who has coordinated France's Copenhagen negotiating effort.
"It's the world's number one power, the biggest emitter (of greenhouse gases), the biggest per capita emitter and it's saying 'I'd like to but I can't'. That's the issue," he said.
