Climate talks in disarray; Singh meets Wen ahead of plenary

Sagar Kulkarni and Betwa Sharma
Copenhagen, Dec 18 (PTI) No headway was made in climate
talks here with the US and China refusing to budge from their
positions on emission cuts as negotiators struggled Friday to
strike a face-saving deal to tackle global warming.

Indications of an impasse in the talks came from Swedish
Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren who said no agreed text
had emerged ahead of the meeting of 110 world leaders.
"It is now up to the world leaders to decide," he said
while blaming China and the US for the deadlock.
Amid the hard negotiations, Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao to
consolidate the position of developing countries.
During his meeting with Wen, Singh recalled that the two
countries have been cooperating at various fora, including the
G-20.
"We need to continue the cooperation," said the Indian
Prime Minister, who arrived in the Danish capital late last
night to take part in the high-level segment UN climate talks.
India and China are the key members of the BASIC bloc --
with others being Brazil and South Africa -- which along with
other developing countries have been resisting attempts by
the rich nations to set aside the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The protocol sets legally binding greenhouse gas
emissions reduction targets for industrialised nations. It
also has a strong compliance mechanism which penalises the
rich nations if they do not meet emission reduction targets
agreed upon by them. (More) PTI BS
MYR


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