US 'ballistic' over climate deal

The United States has “gone ballistic” over draft texts being considered for a climate deal in Copenhagen, demanding last-minute changes which have halted negotiations.

Greenpeace political advisor Geoff Keey said the US has demanded changes to a text which was about to be signed off on the “long-term cooperative action” talks, aimed at getting a deal with the US and other parties, like major developing countries, that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Keey said the changes would weaken commitments by developed countries on reducing emissions but toughen the language around developing country actions on climate change.

The US is now disputing whole sections of the text and developing countries are clearly not happy, he said. “This has the feeling of a complete ambush.”

The talks have lapsed while members of the developing country bloc called G77 consider the changes put up by the Americans.

It’s after 4am on Wednesday in Copenhagen and negotiators are under pressure to deliver something to ministers by the morning.

Heads of state have already started sweeping into the Danish capital and a deal is scheduled to be agreed by Friday.

Keey said the US was seeking to remove from the disputed text a target range for emissions cuts for developed countries of between 25 and 40 per cent and replace it with an “X”.

He said that would mean the current offers of cuts by rich nations would be included in the deal.

Green groups say the promises tabled so far are well short of the 40 per cent cuts on 1990 levels by 2020 which are required.

“We are way below what’s needed to keep climate change below dangerous levels of warming,” he said.

Developed country negotiators have told Fairfax that the US “went ballistic” over soft language being used over greenhouse gas emissions targets for developing countries.

They said the rift has been caused by procedural problems – that the text was in a mess and more work should have been done before draft conclusions were offered to the parties.

They worry now that a deal is impossible, which would mean: “Two years of negotiations down the drain.”

- © Fairfax NZ News