Clinton: US would help raise billions on climate [U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton has arrived at COP15 as time runs out for the
climate talks.]
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived
at COP15 as time runs out for the climate talks.
COPENHAGEN As hopes faded for a strong climate deal, U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to put new life into
flagging U.N. talks Thursday by announcing the U.S. would join others in
raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations cope with
global warming.
She made the offer contingent on the conference's reaching a broader
agreement, including on the issue of "transparency," demanding a Chinese
commitment to allow some kind of oversight to verify its actions to
control emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The Chinese thus far have resisted what they see as a potential
intrusion on their sovereignty. But without that, Clinton told
reporters, "there will not be the kind of concerted global action that
we so desperately need."
Clinton's arrival and announcement in snowy Copenhagen ratcheted up the
U.S.-Chinese diplomatic dueling that has been dominated the two weeks of
climate talks. The negotiations end Friday with a summit gathering of
President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and more than 110
other national leaders.
For China's part, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Beijing told
reporters Thursday that developed countries should show "more sincerity"
in the talks here.
Environment ministers, having taken over from lower-level negotiators,
were getting down to final hours of talks Thursday in hopes of producing
partial agreements to put before Obama, Wen and the others leaders.
Such accords might include long-term goals for financing climate aid,
raised by Clinton, and monitoring of emissions controls.
The Danish hosts had envisioned a comprehensive Copenhagen deal listing
emissions cuts by richer nations, other restraints on the production of
greenhouse gases by major developing countries, and a plan to help
finance poorer countries adapt to global warming. It was to have served
as a framework for a treaty to be completed next year.
"As it looks now, we will not get the deal that we had hoped for," said
a Danish official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the
talks and asked not to be named.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was among those stressing the
time left, not the time lost.
"We can, by working together over the next 48 hours, reach agreement
that will help the planet move forward for generations to come," he told
reporters.
Two weeks of detailed talks on a range of issues from emissions
commitments, to preventing deforestation, to transferring clean-energy
technology reached an impasse on Wednesday when developing nations
objected to the process that produced a core draft document.
In a reprise of a perennial complaint at the annual conferences, the
poorer nations complained they were being excluded from the drafting of
the text, that "northern" read wealthy nations' views were
being imposed on the "south," or developing nations.
The Clinton offer on long-term climate financing for developing
countries reflected an amount $100 billion that Britain's
Brown has previously suggested, to help poorer countries build sea walls
against rising oceans, cope with unusual drought and deal with other
impacts of climate change, while also financing renewable-energy and
similar projects.
"It's good there's now been a statement of support for a clear number on
long-term finance," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said of the U.S.
offer. "This discussion will have to take place with other parties,
whether they feel that sum is adequate."
Expert studies, by the World Bank and others, have estimated the
long-term climate costs for poorer nations, from 2020 or so, would
likely total hundreds of billions of dollars a year. China and other
developing countries say the target should be in the range of $350
billion.
More immediately, the conference has been discussing a short-term
climate fund to help developing countries a $10-billion-a-year,
three-year program. European Union leaders last week committed to
supplying $3.6 billion a year through 2012. On Wednesday, Japan, seeking
to "contribute to the success" of Copenhagen, announced it would kick in
$5 billion a year for three years.
U.S. funding is hovering at only around $1 billion this year, and
Clinton, when asked did not specify how much Washington would contribute
to the "fast start" package.
"We'll do our proportion of `fast start'," the secretary of state said.
De Boer commented afterward, "I'm keenly looking forward to hearing what
the U.S. contribution to that fund will be."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, said the U.S. must improve
its offer of emission cuts and stressed the urgency of reaching a
concrete climate agreement in Copenhagen.
"I have to be honest, an offer by the United States to cut only 4
percent from 1990 levels is not ambitious enough," Merkel told lawmakers
in Berlin before heading off to Copenhagen. "I believe this Copenhagen
conference is the primary touchstone for whether we will succeed in
setting a new path of global development, of sustainability."
The EU has pledged a 20 percent emissions cut that could increase to a
30 percent cut if other developed nations also make far-reaching
pledges.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6774802.html
