UN panel issues new draft at climate talks

Betwa Sharma
Copenhagen, Dec 15 (PTI) As negotiators raced against time
to hammer out a deal on climate change, a key UN panel Tuesday
issued a new draft on measures to combat the problem but
provided no figures for long-term goal of cutting carbon
emissions and financing for poorer countries.

Environment ministers gathered here were scrambling hard
to put together an agreed text for their leaders, who will
attend the plenary of the 12-day climate change conference on
Friday.
The new draft text, which also did not mention 'peaking'
year for greenhouse gas emissions, was issued by one of the
two negotiation tracks set up by the 194 nations of the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
US President Barack Obama, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown would be among the 110 heads of state or
government participating in the final leg of the December 7-18
climate talks on Friday.
Developing nations led by African countries had walked
out of the climate talks Monday, accusing the rich nations
of not doing enough to arrest global warming and making
attempts to undermine the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol, agreed upon in 1997, requires rich
nations to cut emissions by 2012 and imposes penalties if they
fail to do so. It makes no demands on developing countries.
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