Copenhagen hoping for 11th hour deal
Barack Obama in Copenhagen as two-week United Nations climate change conference draws to close
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By Tom Powell. |  |
Friday, 18, Dec 2009 05:12
By Matthew Champion.
Barack Obama has warned the world is running out of time as negotiators in Copenhagen prepare for climate change talks late into the night.
The US president arrived in the Danish capital earlier today at the end of a two-week United Nations climate change conference.
There were rumours on Thursday that the US president's presence in the Danish capital was under threat to avoid him being associated with 193-nation talks that appear doomed to fail.
In a speech in the main conference hall, President Obama accepted that negotiators were "running short on time".
"No country will get everything that it wants", he continued. "Developing countries want aid with no strings attached or no obligation with respects to transparency.
"[And] advanced nations think developing countries cannot absorb this assistance or will not be held accountable."
President Obama went on to say that the "time for talk is over - this is the bottom line," urging nations to choose "action over inaction, the future over the past, and the courage and faith to meet the responsibilities to our planet".
On Thursday the biggest clue yet provided that talks could fail to create a lasting, binding agreement on emissions came from the summit's Danish hosts, who sources say are now briefing of the possibility of a deal in 2010.
President Obama arrived in Copenhagen along with a host of other world leaders who had originally hoped to arrive with negotiations all but wrapped up.
But the last fortnight has been dogged by setbacks and controversies, starting with the release of the so-called Danish text - a draft document granting new powers to richer countries to combat climate change -, mass protests outside the convention centre and the violent suppression of them by police, the walkout of the developing nations negotiating bloc and the talks' president being replaced by Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
On Thursday night, French president Nicolas Sarkozy warned the talks were in danger of outright failure.
"There is less than 24 hours. If we carry on like this, it will be a failure," he said.
"Time is against us, let's stop posturing. A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and every one of us."
Nevertheless, activists and diplomats in Copenhagen believe that President Obama's mere presence could provide the impetus for develop nations to provide the financial aid needed to end the deadlock.
He is due to hold talks with his Chinese, Russian and Brazilian counterparts on the sidelines of the conference.
On Thursday US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in Copenhagen, announced that Washington was committed to working in conjunction with other rich nations to provide $100 billion a year to help developing countries.
After striking a downbeat note on Wednesday, Gordon Brown was more hopeful of a deal on the eve of President Obama's arrival.
"To the developed world I say also: environmental action is the most powerful engine of job creation in an economy urgently in need of millions of new jobs," the prime minister said.
"To the developing world I say: the technology now exists to gain the dividends of a high growth economy without incurring the damage of a high carbon economy.
"And to all nations I say: It is not enough for us to do the least we can get away with when history asks that we demand the most of ourselves."