Hour of truth for troubled climate summit

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The hour of truth loomed Thursday at the UN climate
talks where countries had to draw a line under procedural squabbles to nail down
a deal ahead of one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in
history.
With just hours to go before some 120 leaders are called to seal an
accord to roll back a terrifying rise in Earth's temperature, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel said she was receiving "bad news" from Copenhagen.
"At the
moment, the negotiations do not look promising but I of course hope that the
presence of more than 100 heads of state and government can give the necessary
impetus to the event," Merkel said in Berlin.
Wealthy nations pledged some 22
billion dollars late Wednesday to help bankroll the war on global warming, with
Japan leading the way by promising to stump up a whopping 1.75 trillion yen
(19.5 billion dollars) to developing nations on climate change if a
comprehensive deal is reached at Copenhagen.
But the announcements could not
mask the huge differences still dividing rich nations and the developing world
over how to shoulder the burden.
Some of the bitterest exchanges at the
12-day conference have been between the United States and China, the world's two
biggest polluters.
"It's proceeding at a snail's pace right now," Australia's
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said after talking into the small hours with Ethiopian
counterpart Meles Zenawi on funds to help developing nations.
"But the nature
of these negotiations is that they either run into a brick wall or you get a
breakthrough towards the end."
A deeply gloomy senior delegate told AFP: "It
won't be feasible to get a complete agreement unless it's just one page. We need
several more months."
US President Barack Obama was not due to arrive until
the climax on Friday but his top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
was working the conference hall Thursday in a bid to prevent an embarrassing
failure.
The US was widely condemned for foot dragging on climate change
under the previous president George W. Bush, and Obama is hoping that his
presence will be evidence of a transformation of policy.
The Obama
administration has already said it will table an offer in Copenhagen to curb
emissions in the world's largest economy by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020
-- well below pledges by Europe and Japan.
Emerging economic giants such as
China and India say they are willing to promise voluntary measures to slow their
forecast surges in emissions.
But they are reluctant to be subject to tight
international scrutiny and insistent that developed nations should take the lead
in committing to substantial reduction targets.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, saying he wanted "to show that the Chinese
government and people attach great importance to the climate change issue by
attending this summit."
India's Premier Manmohan Singh meanwhile he would not
cannot accept a global warming treaty that would stall its drive to lift
millions out of poverty.
"Climate change cannot be addressed by perpetuating
the poverty of the developing countries," he said as he flew out.
Singh is
bearing an offer to reduce India's carbon intensity by 20 to 25 percent by 2020,
compared to 2005 levels.
"We are willing to do more provided there are
credible arrangements to provide both additional financial support as well as
technological transfers from developed to developing countries," he
added.
India and China have been at the forefront of criticism of the
negotiations process which has been chaired by the summit host Denmark, saying
it has lacked transparency while other smaller nations have complained of being
sidelined.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday that he
"believe(d) we will" reach an agreement but his climate change minister, Ed
Miliband, warned that arguments about procedure could kill an
agreement.
Scientists say the cost of failure on limiting the rise in
temperatures to two degrees centigrade (3.6 Fahrenheit) will be catastrophic
with hundreds of millions of people already facing worsening drought, flood,
storms and rising seas.

see people if we don't action on it, we steel live in the heat...