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An agreement has been reached among the Danish Presidency of the UN climate conference and delegates as to how further negotiations will proceed. According to the official conference website, talks will focus on two tracks: the Kyoto Protocol and the Climate Change Convention.
A group of developing countries, concerned wealthier nations would destroy the Kyoto Protocol, supported the new procedure, the site said. A contact group headed by the Danish Minister of the conference, Connie Hedegaard, will act as liaison between the two negotiation tracks.
Just after arriving Thursday in Copenhagen, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated the United States’ interest in taking steps to fight climate change and pledge to pay its share of short-term financing of adaptation and mitigation in developing countries over the next three years. The U.S. will also be joining other countries in raising $100 billion per year for climate change measures by 2020, she said.
Ahead of President Obama’s visit to the conference, U.S. officials made clear that the U.S. will not be making any further pledges than previously stated goals of committing to reducing greenhouse gases by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and to pay a "fair share" into a $10 billion fund to aid developing countries, according to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament’s official delegation to the conference made a statement that leaders must be responsible and that several nations have yet to make a pledge to act on climate change with only two days left in the conference. The head of the delegation said China must own up to its responsibility as the world’s largest polluter and India, Brazil and South Africa must take a position as well.
