Ahead of G20, climate change accord
23 09 09 - 22:19 By Jonathan AdamsSeveral world leaders sounded off on climate change Monday, three months ahead of talks in Copenhagen seen as a make-or-break moment for getting a global deal on reducing carbon emissions.
Australia mooted a compromise plan that would take some heat off emerging economies such as China. Britain's Gordon Brown warned that talks currently faced an impasse. And reports said Japan too would unveil its own initiative. The climate change hubbub comes ahead of a special United Nations summit Tuesday, and a series of meetings later in the week between United States President Barack Obama and foreign counterparts on the sidelines of this week's G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Penn. One goal of those talks will be to find common ground for a global deal on cutting emissions.
Talks slated for December in Copenhagen will seek to forge a new global climate-change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
The main rift now is between developed countries, led by the US, and rapidly developing economies such as India and China. The US wants those countries to make stronger pledges on cutting emissions before it will sign on to a pact; the poorer countries want compensation for inking a plan they fear could curb economic growth.
The Australian newspaper reported on that country's compromise plan, to be announced later Monday. The plan would remove pressure on China and other developing nations to set emissions targets, but would still require such countries to "submit their own binding 'schedule' of how and where their reductions could be made."
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the nation's leaders to move quickly, the paper reported.
"There's a danger, speaking absolutely frankly, that options for final decision in Copenhagen are left too late, because we are now, I think, less than 80 days away from Copenhagen," Mr Rudd said.
"And there are big questions and big decisions to be made ... what concerns me is if not enough of that is distilled prior to Copenhagen, so that heads of government, and their finance ministers and treasurers, can make the right decisions for the future.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also urged action, The Guardian reported, quoting from a forthcoming report in Newsweek.
Writing in Newsweek tomorrow, Brown warns: "The negotiations are proceeding so slowly that a deal is in grave danger." He ups the ante by becoming the first head of government to say he will go to Copenhagen to try to agree a framework on climate change for the post-2012 era when the Kyoto protocol expires.
He writes: "Securing an agreement in Copenhagen will require world leaders to bridge our remaining differences and seize these opportunities. But I believe it can be done. And if it is necessary to clinch the deal, I will personally go to Copenhagen to achieve it."
And former Prime Minister Tony Blair, in New York ahead of the UN summit, aimed to help break the impasse with calculations showing that 10 million jobs could be created and the world's GDP boosted by 0.8 percent by 2020 if nations agree to big greenhouse gas cuts, the Associated Press reported.
Japan, under its new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, is also set to unveil a new plan, dubbed the "Hatoyama Initiative," under which Tokyo will "drastically cut its greenhouse gas emissions while promising vigorous support for developing countries in climate technology and funding," The Japan Times reports.
But The New York Times reported that European leaders still think the US has a "lack of political will to adequately address climate change," and that resistance to a climate change pact remains entrenched in some quarters of America, raising concerns that US opposition could scuttle a global deal.
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