Copenhagen leak leaves talks on knife-edge
UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in disarray over leaked documents making major concessions to rich countries
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Tuesday, 08, Dec 2009 04:47
By Matthew Champion.
Massive rifts are breaking out at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen over leaked documents that make major concessions to developed countries.
The so-called Danish text, which has been co-written by developed countries including the hosts, the US and the UK, calls for a "circle of commitment" excluding poorer nations.
The document gives more weight to the developed world, including proposals to allow their citizens to emit twice as much than their counterparts in less-developed countries.
In a complete departure from the guiding principle of the Kyoto protocol, the finding a successor to which at Copenhagen has long since been abandoned, richer nations are not required to take on binding commitments on emissions.
The text, obtained by the Guardian, hands climate change finance to the World Bank, completely discards Kyoto, and commits only to maintaining global temperature rises of 2C.
Click here to read the text in full
The leak comes on the eve of US president Barack Obama's stop-off in Copenhagen ahead of picking up his Nobel peace prize in Oslo on Thursday.