14 DAY TRIAL // With only 48 hours left to decide on the future of the world as we know it, world leaders are still bogged down in procedures and petty disagreements in Copenhagen, at the 2009 UN Climate Summit. The Conference of the Parties (COP 15) seems to have lost sight of the reason why it gathered in the Danish capital in the first place, that is to serve the public interest. The latter clearly dictates that action should be taken, if very few countries attending the talks seem to be willing to compromise.
The disagreement is the same as last years, with a large divide drawn between developing and developed countries. Some of the subjects for dispute are the emission cuts – which countries should apply them and by how much –, as well as the amount of money that should go in the international fund destined to aid poorer nations fight the effects of global warming and climate change. Today, more than 130 world leaders are scheduled to attend the talks, in a bid to come to a compromise, and hopefully a deal, tomorrow, during the last days of negotiations, the BBC News reports.
“I hope that the summit will yield a fair, reasonable, balanced and achievable result through the joint efforts of all parties,” the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, who arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, said yesterday in an official statement. He also added that his presence there was a testimony to China's commitment to signing a deal. “There are turning points where history is expected to turn but fails to turn. I want this conference to be a turning point where history does turn,” British PM Gordon Brown said. If all the representatives were “inspired by conscience and brought together by a desire for common action,” he continued, then this could be achieved.
BBC environment correspondent Roger Harrabin transmits that the developed world is pushing for a level of emission cuts that would prevent the world from heating by two degrees Celsius. Poorer nations, those on island chains and in Africa, say that the levels should be kept even lower, associated with only a minor increase of one to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, Harrabin explains that there is no way that this could happen. Additionally, he reveals that the course of the negotiations will see the two-degree margin missed widely as well.
There is good news too. Japan pledged to contribute $15 billion to the international fund for poor nations. The amount will be paid from 2010 to 2012, only if an agreement is reached in Copenhagen. The funds add to the $10.6 billion pledged by European Union leaders last week, and to the $3.6 billion promised by a group of six nations – Australia, France, Japan, Norway, the UK and the United States.