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COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Danish police battled demonstrators outside the UN climate
summit on Wednesday as ministers from around the world wrestled over a deal to
stave off catastrophic global warming. Police with dogs fired teargas and
arrested around 230 marchers near the Bella Center, while inside the conference
venue fears swelled that procedural battles and textual nit-picking could wreck
the much-trumpeted outcome. Related article: The political price of failure in
Copenhagen.
Around
1,500 demonstrators tried to march on the closely guarded
complex, where 194 nations have been called to forge a
strategy for tackling the greatest known threat to mankind
in the 21st century.
Some of
the world's leaders, arriving ahead of Friday's climax when
some 120 chiefs will be in attendance, began to portray the
negotiations in a sombre light.
British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged a deal would be
"very difficult," while his Australian counterpart Kevin
Rudd said there was "no guarantee" of accord.
If all
goes well, Friday's summit will conclude with a post-2012
strategy for shrinking climate change from mortal peril to a
manageable threat.
It
would set down the outlines of an accord on curbing carbon
emissions that cause global warming and craft a mechanism to
provide billions of dollars for poorer countries in the
firing line of climate change.
Further
negotiations would unfold in 2010 for agreeing on details.
Scientists warn that many millions of people face going
hungry, losing their homes and access to water within the
next decade if nothing is done to stem the rise in
greenhouse gas emissions.
But
nine days of talks among lower-level officials and informal
negotiations among groups of ministers have failed to
produce a breakthrough on any of the key -- and tightly
intertwined -- issues. Related article: China opposes
'carbon tariffs'.
Tiny
Tuvalu, a Pacific archipelago of nine coral atolls which is
one of the countries most at risk from rising sea levels,
likened the state of negotiations to the Titanic.
"I have
the feeling of dread that we are on the Titanic and sinking
fast," its chief negotiator Ian Fry told the conference.
"It's
time... to launch the lifeboats, it's time to save this
process."
Chinese
chief negotiator Su Wei complained the process was "not
transparent" and warned of "very grave consequences if we do
not resolve this issue."
"This
is a party-driven process. You can't just put forward some
text from the sky."
With
the conference moving towards its climax, Danish Prime
Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen took over as chairman,
replacing Connie Hedegaard who will lead informal talks.
"People
around the world are actually expecting something from us,"
said Rasmussen in his first session in the chair, showing
frustration at a series of points of order.
European Union environment commissioner Stavros Dimas voiced
concern.
"Things
are fragile," he told AFP.
"We are
entering the last phase of the negotiations and we should
stop the games, we should start looking at the political
issues, we should focus and accelerate the pace of the
negotiations in order to have an agreement as public opinion
around the world expects us to do and as our responsibility
towards our planet dictates us to do."
Some of
the bitterest wrangling has been between the world's two
biggest carbon emitters, China and the United States, which
declared on Tuesday they would not shift on their emissions
pledges, the thorniest problem of all.
US
President Barack Obama has offered to cut US carbon
emissions by 17 percent by 2020 over a 2005 benchmark, a
figure that aligns with legislation put before the US
Congress.
It
amounts to a reduction of around four percent compared with
the more widely used reference year of 1990. The European
Union has pledged to cut its emissions by 20 percent on 1990
levels by 2020.
The
12-day confab on the outskirts of Copenhagen has been mired
with organisational problems with the number of people
accredited outstripping capacity by around 30,000.
Thousands of activists from non-governmental organisations
were forced to leave the venue on Wednesday to accommodate
the influx of VIPs, further fuelling anger among those who
already feel their voices are not being heard.
Many of
those excluded joined the march towards the summit venue.
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