Denmark: Speed up climate negotiations
DENMARK: Denmark on Tuesday said negotiations on a new global climate
deal were proceeding “too slowly” and called for speeding up the process
before a crucial UN summit in less than six months.
“It is time for a frank and open dialogue so the participating
countries can make clear their positions, their concerns,” said Danish
Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard.
The United Nations hopes to wrap up negotiations in the Danish
capital Copenhagen in December for a new global warming pact to replace
the Kyoto protocol on cutting carbon emissions which expires in 2012.
Hedegaard said it was “essential” that political representatives meet
to move more quickly toward the ambitious accord to be presented at the
Copenhagen summit, which needs more emphasis “on solutions rather than
the problems”.
She made her remarks to AFP before the start of an informal meeting
of some 30 ministers and delegates on climate change in Ilulissat on
Greenland’s west coast.
Some of the world’s biggest polluters Brazil, Britain, France,
Germany, India, Japan, Russia and the United States — all sent
representatives to the four-day “Greenland dialogue”, an annual meeting
on climate change first held by Denmark four years ago in the same town.
Only China declined the invitation, which Danish media speculated may
be due to Beijing’s protest over a visit by the exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, to Copenhagen in May.
COPENHAGEN,
Wednesday, AFP
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