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Sunday 12 February RNW - NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM THE NETHERLANDS IN 10 LANGUAGES, WORLDWIDE 24/7 ON RADIO, TV AND ONLINE

UN Climate Summit faces fiasco

Published on 17 December 2009 - 12:18pm
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The UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen has reached complete deadlock, with rich and poor countries in a standoff and all efforts to reconcile the two sides ending in failure.

Host country Denmark has tried to break the impasse by continuing negotiations in small groups, but this too has produced no results.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the summit could fail. She said the rich countries’ pledges were inadequate and the targets offered by the United States’ were not ambitious. The US proposes to cut its CO2 emissions by just four percent compared to 1990 levels by 2020. Ms Merkel stressed that a failure to limit global warning would cost more than lifestyle changes.

Behind the scenes, haggling goes on between the world’s largest polluters, China and the US. If they manage to strike a deal, it would boost the chances of the summit producing an agreement by tomorrow’s deadline. The arrival of heads of state may also lead to a breakthrough.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (EPA)
 

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel (EPA)

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Discussion

Arev Beilttog 17 December 2009 - 6:24pm / Germany

There is only one word to describe what is going on in Copenhagen: BLACKMAIL! The rich, thieving, nations blackmailing the smaller ones so that these, in the end, give in to profit the West. This behaviour is utterly disgraceful - it is a black mark on the Western world. Only one consolation: in the end ALL will go under...rich, poor, black, white - no exceptions.

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