Copenhagen talks open; deal is 'within reach'

Politicians and scientists urged the Dec. 7-18 talks, attended by 15,000 delegates from about 190 nations, to agree immediate action to curb greenhouse gases and come up with billions of dollars in aid and technology to help the poor.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said 110 world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, were signed up to attend a summit at the end of the Dec. 7-18 meeting.

“A deal is within our reach,” Rasmussen said. But the talks will have to overcome deep distrust between rich and poor nations on sharing out the burden of curbing emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

The presence of so many world leaders meant “an opportunity the world cannot afford to miss,” he said of the talks, aimed at agreeing a pact to replace the existing U.N. Kyoto Protocol that runs to 2012.

“The clock has ticked down to zero. After two years of negotiations the time has come to deliver,” said Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the U.N. panel of climate scientists, said action was needed to avoid more intense cyclones, heatwaves, floods, and possible loss of the Greenland ice sheet, which could mean a sea level rise of 7 metres over centuries.

He said that even a widely accepted goal of limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times could still bring an increase in sea levels that “could submerge several small island states and Bangladesh.”

“The evidence is now overwhelming that the world would benefit greatly from early action, and that delay would only lead to costs in economic and human terms that would become progressively high,” he said.

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