COPENHAGEN (AP) — A new draft agreement Friday at the Copenhagen climate talks pulled together the main elements of a global pact but left gaping holes on financing and cutting greenhouse gas emissions for world leaders to fill in next week.
The six-page draft document distilled a much-disputed 180-page negotiating text, laying out the obligations of industrial and developing countries in curbing the growth of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
News of the document came as the European Union leaders agreed in Brussels to commit euro2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) a year until 2012 to a short-term fund to help poor countries cope with climate change. The EU also conditionally lifted its commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade, depending on better commitments by the United States and Canada.
In the past the EU pledged a 20 percent cut with an option increase that to 30 percent as part of a global deal.
The draft agreement is less specific than other proposals and attempts to bridge the divide between rich and poor countries. It leaves much to be decided by more 110 heads of state, including President Barack Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and most of Europe's top leadership, who are due to arrive in the Danish capital in one week for a landmark summit.
"This text will be the focus of the negotiations from now on," said Jake Schmidt, an analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The paper, drawn up by Michael Zammit Cutajar, the Maltese chairman of the conference's largest committee, says global emissions of greenhouse gases should peak "as soon as possible." But controlling carbon emissions should be subordinate to the effort to wipe out poverty and develop the economies of the world's poorest nations, it said.
It called for new funding over the next three years by wealthy countries to help poor countries adapt to changing climate conditions, but mentioned no figures. The U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, has suggested a total $30 billion.
And it made no specific proposals on long-term help for developing countries. "That's the gaping hole," said Antonio Hill, of Oxfam International.
On Saturday, the conference president, Connie Hedegaard, was to prepare a report on the status of the talks.
Outside the negotiating complex in Copenhagen, police detained 40 people in the first street protests linked to the conference. About 200 people rallied in the downtown area where corporate CEOs were meeting to discuss the role of businesses in the fight against global warming — one of many side events to the U.N. conference that started Monday.
The protesters broke into small groups, banging drums and shouting "mind your business, this is our climate!" There were no reports of violence.
Police spokesman Henrik Moeller Nielsen said the detentions were preventative, to avoid disorder.
In Brussels, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the EU commitment of euro2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) a year until 2012 "puts Europe in a leadership role in Copenhagen."
The figure was reached after two days of tough talks during which eastern EU countries — still lagging in their own development and further battered by the global economic downturn, resisted pressure to chip in. In the end, all 27 EU nations agreed to donate, but the bulk of the funds were coming from Britain, France and Germany.
"There are few moments in history when nations are summoned to common decisions that will reshape the lives of men and women potentially for generations to come," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "This world deal in Copenhagen must be ambitious, global, comprehensive legally binding within six months."
Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Aofie White in Brussels contributed to this report.
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SOURCE: The Associated Press.
