As hopes faded and talks faltered for a strong climate deal, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to inject new life in the UN negotiations today by announcing the US would join others in raising US$100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations tackle climate change.
She said the US is prepared to accept a new treaty, but on condition that it has “standards of transparency that provides credibility to the process”, referring to Chinese commitment to allow some form of international oversight to verify its actions to control its greenhouse gas emissions.
China, however, has said this would be a tantamount to a violation of the Bali agreement reached two years ago, and has said it will verify its emissions by domestic law.
“If there is not even a commitment to pursue transparency, that’s kind of a deal-breaker for us,” said Mrs Clinton. “There has to be a commit to transparency. We have said it consistently… There is backing away from transparency. That to us undermines the whole effort.”
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said at a briefing that he hopes there can be an agreement that will see “reporting responsibilities of all countries intensified in terms of depth and frequency” to satisfy all parties.
Environment ministers, having taken over from lower-level negotiators, were scrambling to make up for lost time on the climate talks in hope of producing partial agreements to put before US President Barack Obama, and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and the others leaders as they arrive in the snowy Danish capital.
Talks have stalled in the past couple of days by widespread disagreement on a few key battlegrounds between the negotiators of rich and poor blocs.
”We’ve lost a day and a half. But we don’t want to get into finger pointing or a blame game. We want to get back to work, we need to provide solid substantive inputs into the meetings of the heads of state which begin tomorrow morning,” said Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh.
Mr de Boer said that “the cable car is moving again”. He dismissed questions on whether host country Denmark has put forward other texts, saying there is now “clarity on the documents to work on”. There are only two texts, one on the Kyoto Protocol, and another one under the convention being negotiated on, he said. If other leaders have ideas, “we hope to receive those through delegations in the two working texts. We’ve made that very clear,” he said.
There is only one day left to achieve success, and expectations of a successful treaty see-sawed between hope and despair as world leaders made their national statements and gave updates.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was among those stressing the time left, not the time lost. “We can, by working together over the next 48 hours, reach agreement that will help the planet move forward for generations to come,” he told reporters, although he admitted that a legally-binding treaty would likely take another “six months to a year”.
The US announcement could boost talks which has dithered on the issue of finance. It follows Japan’s pledge to provide US$15 billion to the fast-track climate fund. The EU has offered some US$10 billion for initial funding. Mr de Boer said the question remains as to how much the US would commit to this US$100 billion fund.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also called on developed countries to “fulfill their historic responsibility to slow, stop and reverse global warming”.
He added that Indonesia is open to international verification, calling on other developing countries to do the same. But it is important that this does not lead to discriminatory trade measures, he said.
He also called on the UN talks to address deforestation - one key issue that has seen some progress at Copenhagen.
Negotiators have reached consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, also known as REDD. Industralised nations have now committed US$3.5bn in public funds to forest protection projects over the next three years.
Under the draft agreement, REDD projects would effectively be integrated into the carbon market, allowing forest protection schemes to generate income by selling carbon credits.
As the clock ticks down to the last day of the UN conference, Mrs Clinton acknowledged that “the talks have been difficult”.
“”And we will continue doing all that we can do. But the time is at hand for all countries to find common ground.”
She quoted a Chinese proverb, saying: “when you’re in a common boat, you have to cross the river peacefully together. We are in a common boat. All major economies have obligation to commit to meaningful mitigation actions and stand behind in a transparent way.”
“We need to avoid negotiation procedures that delay instead of move it forward… We must not only seize this moment, but raise our oars together and row towards a common destiny. “
