Hopenhagen: World gathers to 'safeguard humanity'

• Source: Global Times
• [03:10 December 08 2009]
• Comments

Danish Prime Minister Lokke Rasmussen delivers a speech at the Bella Center in Copenhagen Monday during the opening ceremony of the COP15 Climate Talks. Photo: AFP

By Jiang Xueqing in Copenhagen and Kang Juan in Beijing

Historic UN climate talks got underway Monday in foggy Copenhagen for two weeks of negotiations toward a new treaty to multilaterally combat global warming, even as negotiation groups were still wrangling over emissions and funding proposals.

After the opening ceremony, negotiators from 192 countries embarked on a grueling round of talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before some 110 world leaders attend a summit December 18, making it the largest and most important summit ever held on climate.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said at the opening ceremony that the world is looking to the conference to safeguard humanity.

"For the next two weeks, Copenhagen will be Hopenhagen. By the end, we must be able to deliver back to the world what was granted us here today: hope for a better future."

Observers have hailed recent commitments from the US, China and India to control greenhouse-gas emissions, and US President Barack Obama's decision Friday to attend the final summit, as signs of breakthroughs, after negotiations have dragged on for two years.

A study released by the UN Environment Program Sunday indicated that pledges by industrialized countries and major emerging nations fall just short of the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions that scientists say are needed.

All countries together should emit no more than 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2020 to avoid the worst consequences of a warming world, the report said. According to pledges made thus far, emissions will total some 46 billion tons annually in 2020, from about 47 billion tons today.

"We are within a few gigatons of a deal," UN Environment Program Director Achim Steiner said. "The gap has narrowed significantly."

Jiang Kejun, director of the Research Office of Energy Systems at China's National Development and Reform Commission, predicted that a binding deal could be reached at the summit.

"Governments now appear to take a more cooperative stance," he said.

If everything goes well, world leaders will agree on a political accord that sets the course of action. Further negotiations are expected to take place in 2010 and a legally binding treaty would take effect from the end of 2012, after current pledges expire under the Kyoto Protocol.