Copenhagen summit likely to end without agreement, Rudd addresses delegates

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has addressed delegates attending the climate change summit in Copenhagen, saying he fears the conference could result in a failure to produce a legally binding target.

Rudd said countries run the risk of being “so consumed with petty nationalism of the past that we turned instead against each other”, referencing the divide between developing and “rich” nations.

Many developing countries, including the G77 bloc, have accused richer nations of attempting to organise a deal that would allow them to continue developing environmentally-harmful emissions while giving no assistance to the developing world in combating climate change.

While Rudd said there is a possibility for an agreement to be made, “you would not know that if you examine, as I have done, the 102 square bracketed areas of disagreement that lie in the existing text before us”.

“I fear a triumph of form over substance, I fear a triumph of inaction over action. Let us instead resolve to decide our future.”

However, attending delegates have expressed frustration with the last days of the conference, with world leaders no closer to any sort of binding resolution.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said at a press conference the US was willing to contribute to a fund of $US100 billion in order to combat climate change, but only if an agreement was developed at the conference.

Additionally, she contributed to the growing divide between the US and China by saying UN regulators must have access to Chinese emissions programs as part of the deal. “If there is not even a commitment to transparency then that is kind of a deal breaker for us,” she said.

However, attempts from a number of nations to work on a new agreement have been tarnished by the leaking of a document which states the world will still warm by three degrees this century if initial cuts proposed by early drafts are implemented.

It contradicts effort from several world leaders who are attempting to keep global warming to a maximum of two degrees this century.

“Unless the remaining gap of around 1.9 to 4.2 Gt (billion tonnes of greenhouse gases) is closed and Parties commit themselves to strong action … global emissions will peak later than 2020 and remain on an unsustainable pathway that could lead to concentrations equal 550 ppm (parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) with the related temperature raise 3 (degrees celcius) or above 550 ppm,” the document states.

Despite the leak, attending nations will continue to work on a draft document over the next few days. The G77 bloc is expected to call a vote on its leadership, which some analysts have said could boost progress.