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The Copenhagen climate talks have entered a ”new phase” as ministers join in intensive negotiations to deliver an agreement by the end of the week, the president of the meeting said on Tuesday.
The United Nations described the talks as having reached a ”very distinct and important moment”.
Some negotiations were suspended for five hours on Monday when African delegates walked out in protest that their demands were not being respected by developed countries.
However, Connie Hedegaard, the former Danish climate minister who is president of the talks, said it was an important step that the organisers had ”managed to get ministers down to work”.
Ministerial working groups to address difficult issues such as the amount of money to be provided by rich countries to help the developing world, and possible taxes on aviation and shipping fuel, worked until 2am on Tuesday and reconvened at about 10am.
They were expected to deliver reports to the main strands of the negotiations by the end of Tuesday afternoon.
Ms Hedegaard said progress so far in the talks had been ”all right”, but continued: ”It is very clear that ministers have to be extremely busy and focused over the next 48 hours if we are to reach an agreement.”
She added: ”This is a UN conference, and everybody has to agree on everything. And if they don’t, you get stuck. That is the reality here.”
Yvo de Boer, the top UN climate official, said the talks had ”seen progress, but we haven’t seen enough of it”.
He added that the issues being discussed by ministers ”need to be nailed down in very clear conclusions if world leaders are to go back to the people who elected them [with a deal]”.
Todd Stern, the chief US negotiator, gave a downbeat assessment of progress. ”There’s a great deal yet to do and I have to say the parties are still quite far apart on many issues.”
Andreas Carlgren, environment minister of Sweden, holder of the rotating European Union presidency, admitted the negotiations were proving ”frustrating” and said the pace must increase. But he voiced cautious confidence that a deal could be reached by Friday.
”The situation is serious but still we are expecting to agree on a comprehensive and ambitious agreement.”
Mr Carlgren said the EU was prepared to make more concessions and said the US and China must also show flexibility. ”We’re still expecting them both to raise their ambition level for emissions reduction,” he said.
If the US and China refuse to budge, it will be impossible to reach the widely-agreed target of limiting the rise in average global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the minister said.
Mr Carlgren stressed the European Union would not unilaterally offer to cut its emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, rather than the 20 per cent cut already promised, to kick-start the talks.
He said the offer should be used as a ”lever” to extract deeper cuts from other countries. ”It would just be in vain, and not for the good of the climate, if we sell out our 30 per cent target too cheap,” he said.
However, Mr Stern all but ruled out any increase in the US target of reducing emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. ”I do not think there’s going to be any change in that commitment,” he said.
Mr Stern again ruled out the US signing up to the Kyoto protocol in spite of calls from developing countries for the 1997 deal to form the basis of a new deal. But he said some elements of the Kyoto process could be incorporated.
Ms Hedegaard acknowledged that the watching public ”might sense a discrepancy between their demands and call for action, and what they see coming out of the conference”.
As the talks continued, Pope Benedict XVI used his message for the Catholic church’s World Day of Peace to call on developed countries to accept their ”historical responsibility” for carbon emissions.
”It is important to acknowledge that among the causes of the present ecological crisis is the historical responsibility of the industrialised countries,” the Pope said.
”This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency.”
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