Optimism marks opening day of climate summit

Dec 7, 2009, 15:44 GMT

Copenhagen - A sense of optimism permeated the opening day of UN climate change talks in Copenhagen on Monday as more countries filed new emissions pledges and organizers raised the number of world leaders due to attend the conference to an unprecedented 110.

'Let's mark this meeting in history! Let's open the door to the low-carbon age! Let's get it done. Now!' the conference's chairwoman, former Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard, told thousands of negotiators from nearly 200 countries gathered in the Danish capital for 12 days of discussions on how to stop global warming.

The European Union was the first major economic bloc to agree on huge greenhouse gas emission cuts - at least 20 per cent against 1990 levels by 2020.

But in the run-up to Copenhagen, country after country has announced new emissions targets.

On November 26, the world's biggest polluter - China - announced that it would cut carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 45 per cent by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

Hours later, the leader of the world's second-biggest polluter, US President Barack Obama, said his country would cut emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 per cent by 2050.

And on Sunday, South Africa became the latest country to promise to slow down its emissions growth by 2020 and to ensure they peak between 2020 and 2025.

'Every positive announcement will improve our chances of staying below the 2 degrees Celsius target' that scientists have indicated as the limit for avoiding environmental catastrophe, Hedegaard said.

While the Chinese and US plans are far less ambitious than what the EU is prepared to do, a new study by the United Nations' Environment Programme suggests that countries may be 'closer than some observers realise to agreeing the emissions cuts required to give the world a reasonable chance of avoiding global warming of more than 2 degrees.'

In fact, the study by climate change guru Nicholas Stern and UN analysts indicates that the gap between countries' strongest proposed cuts and what is needed 'may be only a few billion tonnes of greenhouse gases.'

Environmentalists, however, are far from impressed.

'With the current pledges on the table we are heading for a 3.8 degree Celsius world,' said Tasneem Essop, Climate Policy Advocate for environment group WWF.

Moreover, both China and the US insist that they are not prepared to accept legally-binding targets, as requested by much of the rest of the world, casting a dark shadow on the effectiveness of the talks.

Another source of optimism came from the announcement that a total of 110 heads of state and government are now expected to attend the final days of the conference.

These include Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and the leaders of Australia, India, France, Brazil, Britain and Germany.

'Their presence reflects an unprecedented mobilization of political determination to combat climate change,' said Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

Despite the upbeat speeches, Hedegaard and her fellow hosts are well aware that major obstacles must be overcome over the coming two weeks if history is indeed to be made in Copenhagen.

Aside from commitments to slash emissions, the other major hurdle is money.

Back in Brussels, EU diplomats said the bloc would push for a cash handout of at least 1.5 billion dollars to help poor countries fight climate change next year.

But according to Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a total of 30 billion dollars in fast-start aid will be needed between 2010 and 2012.

Moreover, this amount must come on top of the hundreds of billions of dollars that officials say will be needed to help poor nations mitigate and adapt to climate change over the coming decades.

Antonio Hill of Oxfam argues that the EU pledge is in fact old money masqueraded as new.

'We have seen that the European Union plans on making sure this finance is not in addition to its commitments and promises it has already made on overseas development aid,' Hill said.

Hill also warned that a 'huge amount of carbon credits' held by Eastern European countries and Russia 'could absorb a mass amount of pledges which rich countries should be taking on.'

As Kim Carstensen, leader of WWF's Global Climate Initiative, put it: 'The speakers set the bar high and promised a high level of ambition. Now they need to deliver what they promised.'