COP15 – day 4 roundup

A war on drafts has broken out at the Copenhagen climate conference. In response to an alleged Danish draft that was leaked, China, India, South Africa and Brazil on Thursday published a draft for a climate deal calling for a “binding” amendment to the Kyoto Protocol. Another climate draft has emerged. The senders are major emerging economies who call on rich countries to reduce their carbon emissions by more than 40 percent. In November, during a closed-door meeting in Beijing between China, India, South Africa and Brazil, the four major emerging economies finalized an 11-page draft – the "Copenhagen Accord." It requires a "binding" amendment to the Kyoto Protocol and calls for rich countries to reduce their carbon emissions by more than 40 percent compared to 1990 levels, AFP reports.

The initiative, led by Beijing, was conceived as a rebuttal by developing countries to the ”Copenhagen Agreement” draft allegedly written by the UN conference’s host country and leaked by The Guardian newspaper Tuesday this week.

According to AFP, the "Copenhagen Accord", posted on the website of French daily Le Monde, embraces the objective of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. It calls on rich countries – committed to CO2 reductions under the Kyoto Protocol of at least five percent by 2012 – to "multiply by eight" and points out that reductions should be made "mainly through domestic measures" and not through the purchase of so-called "offsets" outside their borders in developing countries. (http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2926)

Regarding funding, the world's major emerging economies call for the creation of a special fund under the authority of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In additional news from Copenhagen, President Barack Obama stated in his Nobel Peace Price acceptance speech that: “Not only scientists and environmental activists call for action on climate change, but also military leaders understand that our common security hangs in the balance...There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement – all of which will fuel more conflict for decades," and then he drew attention to the question of security in the climate problem". According to AFP, the Group of 77 seized the opportunity to urge Barack Obama to steer the US back into the Kyoto Protocol and to release 200 billion US dollars to fight climate change:

"That's the challenge that President Obama needs to rise to. This is what we expect from him as a Nobel Prize winner," said Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping of Sudan, representing 130 countries in the G-77 bloc and China.