Global General

Tense atmosphere clouds climate talks

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-15 10:01
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Tense atmosphere clouds climate talks
Oxfam activists dressed as polar bears dance at the entrance to the main hall at the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 14, 2009. [Agencies] 

The negotiations were meant to extend the Kyoto pact for at least another five years, with deeper emission targets for rich countries. A separate stream of talks dealt with the United States -- which rejected Kyoto -- and obligations by the developing countries in exchange for tens of billions of dollars a year.

The Africans protested when Hedegaard wanted to lump all the talks together.

"We are seeing the death of the Kyoto Protocol," Djemouai Kamel of Algeria, the head of the 50-nation Africa group, told reporters.

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Mohammed Nashid, the president of the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of the Maldives, helped resolve the deadlock with an impassioned speech to the African nations to return to the talks, delegates said.

Outside the conference, Nashid voiced his frustration.

"In all political agreements, you have to be prepared to negotiate. You have to be prepared to compromise, to give and take. That is the nature of politics. But physics isn't politics. On climate change, there are things on which we cannot negotiate," he said.

US special climate envoy Todd Stern said that with leaders due to arrive soon "any lost time is unhelpful." He added that in any complex negotiation "it never goes smoothly, never according to plan. There are always bumps."

Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the dispute set back the talks. "We have lost some time. There is no doubt about that," Prentice said.

Sakihito Ozawa, Japan's environment minister, said the African demand to spend more time on the industrial nations' targets "wasn't feasible."

"When I listen to the comments made by the developing countries, it made me very worried," he said, accusing those nations of trying to disrupt the conference.

On the sidelines of the talks, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a new program drawing funds from international partners to spend $350 million over five years to give developing nations solar energy systems and other clean energy technologies to poor countries. The US share of the cost will be $85 million, with the rest coming from Australia, Britain, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

The International Energy Agency said $8.3 trillion will be spent on new energy in the next 20 years, but the entire amount could be recovered in cheaper energy and in energy efficiency. IEA director Nobuo Tanaka told reporters 93 percent of the additional energy needed by 2030 will be required by developing countries.

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