Copenhagen, December 19: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Friday night called back to the climate summit venue after he had reached the airport to board his flight back home to discuss a new draft that seeks to take care of concerns of all parties, Indian officials said here Friday.
As the drafting of the Copenhagen Accord stalled yet again due to differences between rich and poor countries, Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen made a special plea to Manmohan to return to the conference, according to an official.
Manmohan went into a huddle with other BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, China, India) and was reportedly joined by US President Obama to slavage the conference.
As the bickering over the draft continued, many other world leaders were stuck, including US President Barack Obama. Abandoning any hope of reaching a comprehensive deal, a group of about 25 countries sought agreement on a political statement setting out critical elements, key among them the mobilization of $30 billion in the next three years to help poor countries cope with climate change and a scaling up to $100 billion a year by 2020.
A new draft, now up for last minute discussion amongst heads of states, for a climate deal in Copenhagen has dropped a reference to an end-2010 deadline for reaching a legally binding treaty that had been in a previous text.
The new draft also introduced a name for the proposed agreement — the “Copenhagen Accord”. About 120 world leaders are meeting in the Danish capital seeking to unblock disputes over the previously unnamed text.
The three-page document, which would not be binding in international law, dropped a final paragraph in a previous draft that had said that negotiations on a full, legally binding treaty would have to be completed by the end of 2010.
A clause was dropped that had called on developing countries to reduce emissions by 15-30 percent below “business as usual,” that is, judged against the level had no action been taken.
The text stuck to previous goals, including one of limiting world temperature rises to a maximum rise of 2 Celsius above pre-industrial times to avert impacts such as floods, heat waves, species extinctions and rising ocean levels.
“We shall, recognising the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term cooperative action to combat climate change,” it said.
The draft still left blank key elements such as the depth of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions expected of developed nations by 2020.
With the climate talks in disarray, Obama and Wen met twice Friday in hopes of sweeping aside some of the disputes that have barred a final deal. Officials said the two leaders took a step forward in their first set of talks and directed negotiators to keep working, but the degree of progress was not immediately clear.
Obama also met with the leaders of Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Japan. Also participating in the talks were developing countries Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Colombia, among others. China and Russia, both seen as key participants in the talks, also were present.
Earlier, ministers and their negotiating teams were struggling to work out an agreeable text to be issued at the end of the plenary of the 15th Conference of Parties but consensus appeared nowhere in sight even as 120 heads of state and government concluded their informal meeting.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signalled unhappiness over the proposals on “verification”, the mechanism to ensure countries keep their climate change promises.
Singh pointed out that the vast majority of countries do not support any renegotiation or dilution of the principles of the UNFCCC, in particular of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
“To settle for something that would be seen as diminished expectations and diminished implementation would be the wrong message to emerge from this Conference.”
-Agencies