[THS] !!!!!!! Copenhagen Climate Summit in Disarray after Danish Text Leak

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24135.htm

Copenhagen Climate Summit in Disarray after 'Danish Text' Leak

Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more
power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto
protocol

By John Vidal in Copenhagen

• Read the 'Danish text'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-change
• In pictures: Copenhagen day two
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-in-pictures-day-two

December 08, 2009 " - The Guardian" -- - The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in
disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that
show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more
power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change
negotiations.

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal
limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050;
meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as
much under the proposals.

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of
individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK,
US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was
finalised this week.

The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol's
principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on
firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations
were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change
finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally
binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any
money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a
range of actions.

The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous
document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance
of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks".

A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian
shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:

• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that
were not part of the original UN agreement;

• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries
called "the most vulnerable";

• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;

• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by
2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.

Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is
being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in
the negotiations.

"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the
leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It
effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain
nameless.

Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: "This is only a draft
but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones
get hurting. On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too
many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40% cuts that science is
saying is needed."

Hill continued: "It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that
it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10
agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the
UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing
countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks."

The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries to be a working framework,
which would be adapted by countries over the next week. It is particularly
inflammatory because it sidelines the UN negotiating process and suggests that rich
countries are desperate for world leaders to have a text to work from when they
arrive next week.

Few numbers or figures are included in the text because these would be filled in later
by world leaders. However, it seeks to hold temperature rises to 2C and mentions the
sum of $10bn a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2012-15.

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