UN: "Stop Pointing Fingers" on Climate

(CBS/AP)  Rich and poor countries must "stop pointing fingers" and raise their climate targets to salvage faltering talks on a global warming pact, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

Upon arrival in Copenhagen, Ban told The Associated Press he remains cautiously optimistic of a successful outcome, but warned that negotiators on both sides must work out their differences before world leaders arrive later this week.

"This is a time where they should exercise the leadership," Ban said. "And this is a time to stop pointing fingers, and this is a time to start looking in the mirror and offering what they can do more, both the developed and the developing countries."

Talks on a global climate deal hit a snag Monday when developing countries suspended talks amid deep distrust of the promises by industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The negotiations later resumed but deep divisions remain between rich and poor countries over emission targets and financing for developing countries to deal with global warming.

Speaking to AP at a hotel in Copenhagen, Ban said that if negotiators cannot resolve those problems before more than 100 world leaders arrive starting Tuesday, "the outcome will be either a weak one, or there will be no agreement."

"This will be a serious mistake on the part of the negotiators and the leaders if they go back empty-handed," he said.

Ban's warning came as China and the U.S. - the world's top two carbon polluters - faced off in Copenhagen.

China accused developed countries Tuesday of backsliding on what it said were their obligations to fight climate change and warned that the climate talks had entered a critical stage.

In sharp comments made as the atmosphere at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen grows more divisive, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said there had been "some regression" on the part of developed countries on their position regarding financial support.

The change in their position "will hamper the Copenhagen conference," Jiang told a regular news conference in Beijing.

In Beijing's view, the U.S. and other rich nations have a heavy historical responsibility to cut emissions, and any climate deal should take into account a country's development level.

China, the world's largest polluter, is grouped with the developing nations at the talks. But the U.S. doesn't consider China one of the neediest countries when it comes to giving those nations financial aid.

"We still maintain that developed countries have the obligation to provide financial support," Jiang said, adding that it was "the key condition for the success of the Copenhagen conference."

The talks were suspended for most of Monday's session - a sign of the developing nations' deep distrust of the promises by industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

There are only days left before the conference closes Friday, and the wrangle over emission reductions froze a timetable for government ministers to negotiate a host of complex issues. Though procedural in nature, the Africa-led suspension on Monday went to the core of suspicions by poor countries that wealthier ones were trying to soften their commitments and evade penalties for missing their targets.

Talks were halted most of the day, resuming only after conference president Connie Hedegaard of Denmark assured developing countries she was not trying to kill the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 document that requires industrial nations to cut emissions and imposes penalties if they fail to do so. Kyoto makes no demands on developing countries.

President Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and more than 110 other world leaders are scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen in the next several days to cap two years of negotiations on an agreement to succeed Kyoto.

[Thermoguy]

I respect Mr Gore for bringing forward the important topic of climate change because we are the biggest threat to the planet but after that Mr. Gore should sit back and be an administrator. He does not have a background in designing or creating emissions and from what I hear he is now lobbying where he invested.

What do Mr. Gore, Mr. Obama, media and 100% of the UN Members in Copenhagen have in common? All of them and academia is blind to the temperatures we are discussing. Although temperature is critical in education, we use calculators.

I design emissions for a living with a building engineering background and a separate education in electrical energy provision. We calculate electron flow through a wall with the key work being calculate. I am going to supply a link to what we missed when we found the cause of urban heat islands and the massive energy used treating the symptoms.

We are not supposed to put absorbent materials on the exterior of buildings or remove ground cover because buildings will be radiated and generate extreme heat. On December 6, 2009 just before the meeting in Copenhagen, we used infrared to see buildings over 120 degrees F on a 26 deg. F day. In the summer, we documented buildings 201 deg F on a 95 deg. F day without emissions being produced. www.thermoguy.com/urbanheat.html

[RedWings_ninety_one]

Where I live has probably the biggest temperature swing in the US. 90's in the summer and negitaves in the winter. If you ask me, the negatives really point to the fact that global warming is occuring.

[Empire-George]

endurorob_5

Did you notice that Gore immediately retracted what he said yesterday about the Artic Ice melting....he had to admit his comment wasn't based on anything, the scientist was embarrassed.

[Empire-George]

by cleric60 December 15, 2009 7:38 AM EST

Sorry, I didn't notice you mentioned this first....good post cleric60

[Turbidite]

"Financial aid" is the sugar pill that the rich nations think can solve problems existing in the underdeveloped and undeveloped nations. It just doesn't work. The money simply disappears into the pockets of the people that control the incoming aid. A more rational approach would be "Technological aid" to replace financial aid. Introducing appropriate technologies (gratis)to the nations that are polluting the atmosphere, hydrosphere and aquifers is seemingly a much more practical solution. Instead of a "Peace Corps", how about a "Tech Corps" to be provided by the advanced industrialized nations that are "green" (there aren't many of those either).

[endurorob_5]

We have been pumping money and food into these countries for decades to help fight hunger. What has that accomplished? Nothing. A large part of the food and money end up in the hands of corrupt government officials and militants while the people still go hungry. You can't help someone that is not willing to help themselves.

[edward1975-2009]

There is a saying that goes something like this: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Quit giving them money, teach them, give them the technology to fend for themselves. The US has turned much of the world into welfare nations by supplying them with money. Stop this futile practice, it doesn't work.

[cleric60]

In his speech, Gore told the conference: "These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr. [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years."
However, the climatologist whose work Gore was relying upon dropped the former vice president in the water with an icy blast.

"It's unclear to me how this figure was arrived at," Dr. Maslowski said. "I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this."

Gore's office later admitted that the 75 percent figure was one used by Dr. Maslowski as a "ballpark figure" several years ago in a conversation with Gore.

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming.

Is Gore promoting more untruths on global warming???? If you keep telling a big lie long enough, it becomes truth in the minds of many people. Very sad.