World leaders set for Copenhagen showdown

• Source: Global Times
• [04:39 December 16 2009]
• Comments

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen attend the opening ceremony of the high-level segment of UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, Dec.15, 2009. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)

World leaders raised the pressure for results at the UN climate summit Tuesday amid procedural wrangles, finger-pointing and defense of national interests.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were among the heavyweights expected in the Danish capital, where climate ministers have struggled to make progress.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also departs this afternoon for the summit. He will set forth China's stance and opinion on issues of curbing climate change and promoting international community in this regard, a speech seen very important for the process of the summit by many attendees.

"Time is running out. ... There is no time for posturing or blaming," Ban told reporters in New York before flying to the Danish capital. "If everything is left to leaders to resolve at the last minute, we risk having a weak deal or no deal at all. And this would be a failure of potentially catastrophic consequence."

The summit, which reaches its climax Friday when 120 heads of state huddle in the Danish capital, is billed as one of the most important gatherings of the post-World War II era. But deep divisions remain over how to split the tab.

Developing countries have complained of being excluded from key negotiations. They are demanding rich nations slash their carbon emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.

However, US chief delegate Todd Stern poured cold water on the notion that it would deepen its offer of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.

"I am not anticipating any change in the mitigation commitment," Stern said. "Our commitment is tied to our anticipated legislation and there are elements in that legislation that could result in an overall target or an overall reduction of the amount, that could actually be a fair amount higher.

"We're not making a commitment to that right now because it's just uncertain and we don't want to promise something that we don't have," he added.