The prospects for a binding deal on climate to be secured at the Copenhagen talks hang in the balance as negotiators prepare for the conference’s final day.
While key obstacles to an agreement remain, some signs of progress were evident on the tenth day of the international climate conference, most notably the possibility of concessions from both China and the US.
Towards the end of the penultimate day, a leaked UN document indicated that at present, the best possible deal that could be secured would only curb emissions sufficiently to limit the rise in global temperatures to 3°C rather than the 2°C that scientists believe to be a “safe” limit.
The second week of the UN talks at Copenhagen has seen the arrival of environment ministers who have worked around the clock in order to push talks along. They have been followed by world leaders, who will attempt to seal a binding deal on greenhouse gas emission reductions.
After several days of tension between China and the USA – the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters – China signalled concessions on the monitoring of emission curbs, while the USA pledged more money for developing countries.
UN Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US would help to establish funding of $100 billion per year for developing countries if a deal emerged that met US requirements. The key demand is transparency from China.
“In the context of a strong accord in which all major economies pledge meaningful mitigation actions and provide full transparency as to those actions, the US is prepared to work with other countries towards a goal of mobilising $100 billion a year to address the needs of developing countries,” said Clinton.
China said it was ready to engage in dialogue with the US, which is adamant that it will not sign up to a deal unless China accepts legally binding emission cuts.
The two countries’ positions are a reflection of the rift between developed and developing nations in the climate talks. Developing countries want rich nations to cut emissions by at least 25 per cent by 2020 by extending the Kyoto Protocol.
Developed countries, however, say that a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol would not cover enough future emissions to limit global warming.
Another development in the second week of talks was news that carbon capture and storage (CCS) would not be added to the list of technologies that industrial countries can use to offset emissions.
Some countries at the Copenhagen talks had proposed the addition of CCS to the Clean Development Mechanism, a process through which signatories to the Kyoto Protocol can fulfill part of their climate obligations by investing in emission-reducing projects in developing countries.
But after debating the issue, a decision on including CCS in the CDM was postponed and the UNFCCC’s scientific advisory body was asked to investigate the risk of seepage from storage sites.
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