Danish draft generates heat; threaten climate talks

Climate talks went into disarray today as details of the Danish draft treaty that appear to sideline the Kyoto Protocol and UN were leaked, prompting poor nations to react furiously with India insisting that the text was not a formal proposal of the host government.

The G77 countries and China blasted the Danish draft on the third day of the talks claiming that its strategic intent was aimed at "superimposing a solution".

The Danish draft is seen as a departure from Kyoto and gives the control of climate change finance to the World Bank.

Sudan's envoy Lumumba Stanislas Di-Aping, who heads the G77, said that the Danish draft detracted from both the substance and procedure of previously agreed agreements under the United Nations Framework Convention and the Bali Action Plan.

He dubbed the leakage of the draft as "serious and unfortunate development" which threatened the success of the Copenhagen process.

India, which has been privy to the Danish draft, reacted cautiously saying that the text was not a "formal proposal" by the government.

"The G77 members will not walk out of this negotiation at this late hour because we can't afford a failure in Copenhagen.

"However, we will not sign an unequitable deal. We can't accept a deal that condemns 80 per cent of the world population to further suffering and injustice," Di-Aping said.

The talks were off to a rocky start on the third day of the 12-day conference with tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu walking out of the meeting after the chair refused to discuss its proposal.

Tuvalu had proposed amending the UN climate treaty to require the world's nations to keep the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Besides, an analysis of the Danish text by G77 also indicated that it would force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement.

However, Saran pointed out that the Danish government has clarified is this is not the paper but only one of several drafts that have been looked at.

Saran has left for India to hold discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the developments in Copenhagen and form the country's stand for final leg of the talks which will be attended by over 100 heads of state and government, including Singh..

The UN climate change chief Yvo de Boer also clarified in the Danish test saying it was not an official document presented by the Denmark Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

"This was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations," de Boer said.