Talk:Copenhagen climate conference opens

Read to publish
I think the article is ready to publish minus the following sections;

Both developed and developing countries presented CO2 emissions reduction targets ahead of the conference. China expects cuts of at least 40% from 1990 levels by 2020. The United States aims to cut emissions by 3% below 1990 levels by 2020, a 17% cut from 2005. European Union leaders agreed in December 2008 to cut emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and by 30% if other developed nations follow suit. Russia says it will cut greenhouse gases by 22-25% below 1990 levels by 2020. Japan plans to cut emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 if the Copenhagen summit agrees to an ambitious deal. Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice said that a plan mirroring Obama's goal of cutting emissions by about 3% below 1990 would be met. Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has offered to cut emissions by between 3% and 23% below 1990 levels by 2020. Indonesia was the first developing country to announce a planned 1.4-gigaton emission cut of 26% of 1990 levels by 2020. Indonesia also indicated that the level of cuts could be as high as 42% with economic help.

The European Union has adopted a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels but the union will raise its commitments to 30% if other major players undertake “comparable commitments”. The Swedish Minister for Environment, Andreas Carlgren, is negotiating on behalf of the EU will have to decide what “comparable commitments” are. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, said in a video interview with the The Guardian newspaper: "I want to create a situation in which the European Union is persuaded to go to 30%." This would mean the UK would have to achieve a cut of 42% on the 1990 levels by 2020, compared with the current British target of 34%.

News that the United States Environmental Protection Agency ruled that greenhouse gases endanger human health, this may allow reductions of greenhouse gas emissions without legislation from the Senate, where a bill to cut U.S. emissions by 2020 is stalled. The United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and is the only industrialized nation outside the existing Kyoto Protocol. "This is great news and shows that the administration is committed to enforcing the Clean Air Act and addressing climate change," said Keya Chatterjee of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

A major aspect of the negotiations is financing of mitigation and adaptation to climate change in developing countries. Top climate negotiator Yvo de Boer said that the talks are about the amount of money needed from the developed countries. Another important issue according to him is “how do we allocate the still limited resources”. Billions of dollars in aid and technology to help poorer countries limit their emissions will be needed. Quoting an unnamed diplomatic source, the Financial Times Deutschland has said the EU is to provide “1-3 billion euro” in aid to developing countries over the next three years so they can fight the effects of climate change and allow climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim of Sudan, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China said, "So far we have not seen any real leadership" from rich nations. Developing nations including small island states, which are most vulnerable to rising sea levels, are demanding more action. Dessima Williams, of Grenada, speaking on behalf of small island states at risk from rising seas, said the group "will not accept a made-for-television solution...We are here to save ourselves from burning and from drowning."


 * Why minus? Q/0/k 04:12, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The conference is on for two weeks, If a simple article is published now, maybe more indepth articles about different areas of the conference can be publish later? I feel I've done as much as I can do with it for now and it is realy up to an editor to decide to publish or not. Mrchris (talk) 04:35, 8 December 2009 (UTC)