Danish unofficial draft version of UNCCC treaty leaks, G77 reacts sharply

December 10, 2009

On the third day of the two-week in Copenhagen, the leaders of developing countries said that EU and US emissions cuts plans are not enough. After a Danish unofficial draft version of the future treaty leaked, they reacted with a demand of shift of emission cuts to developed world industries.

The host Danish government's draft version of a treaty was published by UK newspaper The Guardian without the government's consent. The draft says that "developing countries, except the least developed which may contribute at their own discretion, commit to nationally appropriate mitigation actions". The quantitative consideration in it is that a 50% emissions cut globally (from 1990 levels) by 2050 should be achieved, with most industrialised nations implementing 80% cuts. Deputy Head of the Chinese delegation Su Wei recalled the 1997, which includes the statement "no developing nations are committed to emission cuts or sharing of funding for mitigation and adaptation in poor parts of the world". Su Wei said, "The EU position cannot be justified. The [Kyoto] protocol among other agreements stipulate clearly what developed and developing countries should do."

In an interview with , a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, the Chairman of commented on the event, mentioning the previous Denmark-Africa friendly political relations:

A member of poverty-focused charity,, Antonio Hill commented to the BBC, speaking positively about the idea of transferring finance from industrialised to developing countries &mdash; to help them curb their emissions and help them protect against the impacts of climate change. Antonio Hill said that otherwise industrialised nations had to offer considerably bigger cuts. Commentators say the G77 block statements are substantially reasonable, since many of emissions sources are geographically located in developing countries, but owned by citizens of developed countries.

Executive secretary of the UNFCCC said the document had no weight at the conference:

Head of the global climate initiative World Wide Fund for Nature Kim Carstensen commented on the event, pledging not to to distract to the 'Danish text' and to concentrate on subsequent official actions at Copenhagen: