A compromise proposal to be presented by the Danish presidency Wednesday was held up as the negotiating process, according to UN climate chief Yvo de Boer, was subject to an “unexpected stop”.

De Boer: “Unexpected stop” in negotiations - The negotiating process at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen was subject to an “unexpected stop” on Wednesday, according to Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate official.

New compromise proposal said to be on its way - Danish PM takes over the COP15 presidency, he will present a compromise on Wednesday afternoon, a Danish newspaper reports.

Climate talks deadlocked as clashes erupt outside – Danish police fired pepper spray outside the UN climate conference on Wednesday, as disputes inside left major issues unresolved just two days before world leaders hope to sign a historic agreement to fight global warming.

Africa shows a willingness to negotiate - African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi has scaled back the demands for climate finance from rich countries, signaling thaw under way in the deadlocked UN negotiations.

Countries pledge billions to protect rainforests - The US, Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain will make 3.5 billion US dollars available for developing countries that produce ambitious plans to slow and eventually reverse deforestation.

Japan: 15 billion dollars in climate aid - Japanese pledge outbids the EU’s funding for short-term climate aid in developing countries.

Kerry: US to pass “major” climate legislation - A successful deal in Copenhagen will lead the way for climate legislation in the US Congress, says Senator John Kerry.

India: Kyoto in intensive care if not dead - Whether the expiring Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for greenhouse gas emissions from rich countries only, should be continued, expanded or replaced with an alternative agreement still splits the parties.

British PM warns of failure but brings hope - According to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the first sign of progress in the negotiations could be seen Wednesday with new proposals for climate change from African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi.

Hillary Clinton to attend COP15 - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Copenhagen this week, it emerged yesterday.

>>>Full in depth article visit COP15 and Act on Copenhagen

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The UN climate conference in Copenhagen entered its decisive phase on Tuesday, as heads of state and government began to arrive for the final three days of negotiations. The leaders will be facing “a defining moment in history”, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Prince of Wales speech at Copenhagen - The Prince of Wales has arrived in Copenhagen to promote forest issues.He delivered a speech today at the UN Summit.

Foreign Secretary ‘determined’ to secure ambitious deal - Britain is determined to make sure that Copenhagen produces an ambitious deal on tackling climate change in which Europe plays a ‘critical role’.

UN conference gearing up for make-or-break finale - World leaders “face a defining moment in history”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as the Copenhagen conference formally entered its high-level stage Tuesday.

South Korea to bridge rich and poor nations - As the first emerging economy to take on absolute reduction commitments, South Korea hopes to play a key role in Copenhagen. Read more

China: Poor countries are first in line for funding – So far the majority of internationally funded projects under the Kyoto Protocol have been in China. But other countries need the funds more urgently according to Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei. Read more

Merkel concerned over Copenhagen pace – German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern Tuesday about the pace of climate negotiations in Copenhagen and said she is “somewhat nervous” about prospects of success. Read more

Forest negotiations are making headway – There is mounting agreement on rewarding tropical countries which slow deforestation under a new deal. This is the first issue where significant progress has been made in Copenhagen. Read more

Further commitments needed to break negotiation deadlock – A blueprint, released Tuesday in Copenhagen, outlines three options for long-term climate aid from developed to developing countries. Read more

Japan to unveil 10 billion dollars in climate aid – A pledge of funds from rich countries will be a key ingredient for any climate change deal in Copenhagen. Japan is ready to make an offer. Read more

Australian PM warns of failure – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday urged world leaders to be more flexible as a consensus looks difficult to achieve. Read more

Schwarzenegger says states key to climate fight – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says countries cannot solve the problem of climate change without the help of states, cities, regions, activists, scientists and universities. Read more

Developing world threatens battle on drafts  -African countries, Brazil, China, South Africa and India say they have produced a default proposal to be used only if rich countries try to shortcut UN-led negotiations in Copenhagen. Read more

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EU putting more money on the table - EU leaders say they have agreed to commit 2.4 billion euro (3.6 billion US dollars) a year until 2012 to help poorer countries combat global warming. On Friday, EU leaders also agreed to reduce their emissions by 30 percent from 1990 levels.


Yvo de Boer: EU billions a boost to talks – The European Union’s decision to fund 7.2 billion euro for tackling global warming over the next three years is “hugely encouraging” for the climate conference process, says the UN climate chief.


First official draft on climate deal – A key working group under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came up with a six-page text Friday. The draft may form the core of a new global agreement to combat climate change beyond 2012, when the present framework, the Kyoto Protocol, expires.


Russia sets conditions for climate deal – A new global climate change deal should take Russia’s low greenhouse gas emissions in recent years into account, a Russian presidential adviser insisted Friday.

Chinese official: Stern “irresponsible” – In unusually blunt language, China’s Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said on Friday that he was “shocked” by US climate envoy Todd Stern’s comments earlier this week that China shouldn’t expect any American public climate aid money, and that the US was not in any debt to the world for its historically high carbon emissions.


G-77 chief negotiator walked out in anger – Chief negotiator for 130 developing countries believes that the UN climate change conference “will probably be wrecked by the bad intentions of some people”.

>>>Full in depth article visit COP15 and Act on Copenhagen

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Yesterday the overarching plenary was suspended, but the negotiations have continued in other sessions on issues such as technology, finance, and adaptation.

As always the team at MoreEco have summarised the events of Day 4 for your.

Capping temperatures is ‘achievable’ says AVOID scientist - Carbon emissions must start to fall within the next 10 years to keep the rise in global temperatures below the 2 degree C level that would trigger environmental devastation, one of the UK Government’s leading climate scientists says.

US is determined to achieve strong agreement – Stern – The chief negotiator for the United States says that Washington is determined to get the ’strongest possible agreement’ in Copenhagen. Todd Stern said he was under no illusion that success would be easy but said that there was a strong political commitment to an agreement from the US Government.

A message from Global Agenda Council Members to World Leaders - More than 200 senior figures across business, finance and academia have called on world leaders to agree a ‘bold new deal’ to curb global warming and generate low carbon growth. The signatories, who are members of the Global Agenda Council on climate change of the World Economic Forum, an independent body, warned that climate change threatened to put ‘our very society at risk’.

Sweden pledges 800 million euro for climate change fund – Sweden says it will give 800 million euro (1.2 billion US dollars) to help developing nations fight climate change.

G-77: Personal call on President Obama - The Group of 77, representing the majority of the world’s developing countries, urges the US to join the Kyoto Protocol and commit to emission reductions comparable to those of other industrialized nations.

>>>Full in depth article visit COP15 and Act on Copenhagen

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The Bella Centre is a hive of activity, as 192 countries converge to agree a global deal on climate change. The formal sessions begun this morning, with an opening plenary at 10am, local time. Outside the negotiations hall, demonstrators, NGOs and others are also gathering, pressing on the urgency of a global deal.

Highlights from  day 1 are;

COP15 Cultural Opening Ceremony –  Short film and Danish jazz legend open COP15. More than 2000 delegates watched the four-minute long film ‘Please Help the World’ when COP15 opened this morning. Thousands of other delegates watched the opening on screens in meeting rooms at the Bella Center. “We have made a film which speaks to the heart rather than to the brain,” says the Danish director of the film Mikkel Blaabjerg Poulsen.

Wave March - More than 50,000 people joined a climate change march in central London calling for world leaders to agree a deal to protect the environment at their negotiations in Copenhagen this month. Celebrities and campaigners joined workers, students and families on a colourful and musical march, called The Wave, from the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square to the House of Parliament.

UK’s Pay as You Save scheme – Hundreds of homeowners across the country are being offered the chance to install energy saving technologies at no upfront cost in an initiative timed to mark the launch of the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Homeowners in Birmingham, Sunderland, Stroud and the London Borough of Sutton will test out new ways to finance whole house energy makeovers under the Government’s £4m Pay As You Save scheme.

UK’s Pay as You Save scheme Hundreds of homeowners across the country are being offered the chance to install energy saving technologies at no upfront cost in an initiative timed to mark the launch of the climate change conference in Copenhagen.

South African targets for reducing the growth in carbon emissions - South Africa has become the latest emerging economy to set out targets for reducing the growth in carbon emissions. President Jacob Zuma said that South Africa would undertake mitigation actions that will result in a deviation below the current emissions baseline of around 34% by 2020 and by around 42% by 2025.

Hopes rise as Obama and Singh commit to attend final day of talks - Hopes of a global deal on climate change were further raised after US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced they would attend the final negotiating stages of the Copenhagen summit.

The White House said that the President would arrive for the final day of official negotiations on 18 December rather this Wednesday,  9 December, as originally planned.

Newspapers urge governments to make Copenhagen a success - As the historic climate change conference opened in Copenhagen and optimism of a successful outcome continued to build, Britain’s leading newspapers used their final leader columns to urge the world’s governments to make the meeting a success.

The Guardian used the whole its front page on Monday 7 December to carry a joint editorial being shared by 56 newspapers in 45 countries across Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

PM :’I will do everything in my power to succeed’ - Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband used the final weekend before today’s opening of the Copenhagen climate change conference to hammer home the message that there is a scientific consensus behind the need for action.

In a series of interviews in newspapers and on television politics programmes, they warned that people who spread doubt over the science behind man-made global warming risked ’sabotaging’ an agreement to cut harmful greenhouse has emissions.

World only a ‘few billion tonnes’ short of climate target – The offers that countries have already made to reduce their carbon emissions are only a ‘few billion tonnes’ short of the total cuts needed to hot the target of capping the rise in global temperatures, Lord Stern said in Copenhagen as the climate change conference got underway.

Countries meeting at the United Nations climate change conference may be closer than some observers realise to agreeing the emissions cuts required to give the world a reasonable chance of avoiding global warming of more than 2˚C above pre-industrial levels, he said.

>>>Source; Act On Copenhagen

The UK government says it is highly unlikely that a new legally binding climate treaty can be agreed this year – and a full treaty may be a year away. Two years ago, the world’s governments vowed to finalise a new treaty at next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen. Climate Secretary Ed Miliband has until now said it could be done – but now he says only a political deal is likely, echoing some other senior figures.

Developing countries reacted with frustration and disappointment.

“When we left (UN talks in) Bali two years ago, we all expected that would be agreeing on a legally binding outcome to respond to the urgency… that we were on the verge of catastrophic climate change, so we’re very disappointed,” said Selwin Hart from Barbados, speaking for the group of small island developing states.

“If we don’t take urgent and ambitious action, the reality is that some small island developing states will not be around within a couple of decades – certainly not by the end of the century.”

This is thought to be the first time that UK ministers have acknowledged the slim chances of achieving anything legally binding. In the middle of October, Mr Miliband said a new treaty looked “more do-able” following a meeting of the Major Economies Forum in London. His comments now echo warnings from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and US chief climate negotiator Todd Stern that only a “politically binding” agreement can now be achieved.

Officials then warned it could take up to a full year to finalise the treaty.

View full article at bbc.co.uk

Image sourced from bbc.co.uk - Activists strung a banner from Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church

Climate change dwarfs all other challenges facing the human species. The science is irrefutable and daily grows in the severity of its findings. Humankind has the resources and imagination and creativity to rise to this challenge IF we find or create the motivation to act together FAST. The unprecedented nature of this challenge requires us all to raise our game to a new level of co-operation and combined action for the common good.

“Six Billion Reasons” has been created to provide a platform for people all over the world to communicate their mandate for the climate change decision makers to take bold, urgent, co-operative steps to tackle climate breakdown. It is a response to Ed Miliband’s plea for the public to make a much bigger noise about climate change to impel, compel and empower the climate change negotiators and politicians to make the big leaps necessary. (Ed Miliband heads the British department for climate change and energy).

“Six Billion Reasons” gives people a creative way to “stand up for life on earth” – to move the politicians to move mountains. All that people need to do is to make or find a “pictogram”, which is a photo or short video which communicates their mandate, and upload it to the web (via flickr or You-tube), and tag it with Iamareason. Then OneClimate will use their technology to harvest these and present them all on the Six Billion Reasons platform, creating a stunning global chorus that affirms the power of humanity to meet this challenge together.

The pilot website is already up and running: www.sixbillionreasons.org

But this is only the beginning. We intend sixbillionreasons to become an unmissable global presence which will, in an exciting, empowering way, continue to raise international awareness about climate change, and support action on individual, national and inter-national levels. It’s designed to give a “bottom up” approach “top” significance.

It has been created by:
Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, (School of Movement Medicine) Peter Armstrong and Anuradha Vittachi (One World and One Climate) and their teams.

The Government has yesterday launched a search for local authorities, charities and social enterprises to take up the challenge to help communities fight climate change.

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Communities can apply for a share of a £10million fund as part of the Low Carbon Communities Challenge to build on existing low carbon schemes.

Around a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating, lighting and powering electrical appliances in homes.

By 2050 this needs to be almost zero if the UK is to cut its emissions by 80% highlighting the importance of local action. 

This challenge offers the chance to be in the forefront of moving to a low carbon economy. The twenty successful communities will each receive support to pay for real measures selected by the local residents themselves. These could range from a local biomass plant to retrofitting homes to electric car charge points.

In return for technical and financial assistance, people living and working in the area will work alongside government and contribute to finding low carbon solutions from which the whole country will benefit. Successful outcomes from the project will pave the way for a national roll-out of proven measures. The Low Carbon Communities Challenge will help communities curb their carbon emissions and encourage economic investment that delivers greater energy efficiency.

A specialist support squad made up of partners with funding and expertise from inside and outside government – including The Energy Saving Trust, The Carbon Trust, WRAP and the third sector – will work together with each community to offer help on anything from negotiating in planning debates to identifying personalised low carbon answers.

The twenty communities will act as national blueprints that will be used to inform government policy development and delivery. The direct involvement of these real life working case studies mean lessons can be learned on the ground to ensure future policies achieve the carbon emission cuts we need.

The Challenge was announced this summer as part of the government’s Low Carbon Transition Plan. For towns to be eligible they must demonstrate they are already making changes and are committed to developing both infrastructure and behaviour change that results in carbon reduction such as wind farms, electric car infrastructure or home energy refurbishments.

In testing the success of different plans the flagship Low Carbon Communities will provide invaluable research and information on how communities can successfully work together to cut emissions and fight climate change.