The UN climate talks in Copenhagen descended into acrimony overnight after the leaking of a draft "Copenhagen Agreement" that would require developing countries to take on targets as the world cut emissions in half by 2050.
Drafted by the Danish Government after talks with the so-called "circle of commitment", including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the document said global emissions should peak by the end of next decade but did not include any emissions targets for 2020 or specific proposals for the creation of a green fund to help the most vulnerable. Control of climate change finance would be passed to the World Bank.
Angry developing countries said the document was the work of rich nations who wanted to abandon the existing Kyoto Protocol, which is not mentioned in the draft, and its principle of only industrialised nations taking on emissions targets due to their historic responsibility for climate change.
It prompted a furious rebuke to rich nations from China. In a surreal press conference in a cramped room next to the Chinese delegation office, chief negotiator Su Wei claimed he was unaware of the leaked Danish proposal that had hijacked the mood of the convention centre while attacking the European Union, Japan and the US for claiming they were acting on climate change while doing very little.
In a detailed analysis of the flaws of rich nations' 2020 targets, he said Europe had already done more to limit emissions under the flawed Kyoto Protocol than it proposed to under a Copenhagen pact; Japan's proposed 25 per cent cut was meaningless because it had set conditions that would never be met; and the US had promised a "remarkable and notable" emissions target but proposed only a provisional one per cent cut below 1990 levels.
"I'm not very good at English, but I doubt whether just a 1pc reduction can be described as remarkable or notable," he said.
He said the $US 10 billion annual green fund that was won wide support at the conference and is included in the draft Danish Agreement worked out to just $2 per person across the planet - not enough to buy a coffee in Copenhagen, or a coffin. "Climate change is a life and death issue," he said.
Aid agencies and environment groups said the Danish proposal undermined the two-week UN negotiations as it had been pulled together by only a handful of countries.
The head of the WWF's global climate initiative, Kim Carstensen, said it was a distraction from getting a strong deal.
"The behind-the-scenes negotiations tactics ... have been focusing on pleasing the rich and powerful countries," he said.
But Climate Institute policy director Erwin Jackson said the draft could provide the basis for an agreement on an ambitious climate deal if widely backed. He was critical that it did not include emissions targets and financing figures.
"The principle concern is that the text does not provide a timeline to finalise a new treaty to avoid dangerous climate change and drive new investments and jobs in the clean energy economy. Australia needs to ensure we have a clear mandate for a new treaty by the middle of 2010," he said.
The Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy denied in a statement that the document was a "secret Danish draft". "Such a text does not exist. In this kind of process, many different working papers are circulated among many different parties with their hands on the process ... therefore, many papers exist."
The statement said inflammatory commentary by unnamed developing countries in The Guardian, which posted the document online, was a sign of nervousness at the talks.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the draft was an informal consultation paper given to a number of countries before the conference.
"The only formal texts in the UN process are the ones tabled by the chairs of this Copenhagen conference at
the behest of the parties," he said.
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