Danish official: Hopes for climate deal slim, negotiations stalled
COPENHAGEN (AP) — World leaders starting flooding into Copenhagen on Thursday, even as a Danish official acknowledged that hope was running out for a comprehensive climate deal because the negotiations between rich and poor countries were deadlocked.
The official said the Danish hosts of the U.N. conference had not given up though it appeared unlikely that their ambitious plan for the conference would be fulfilled.
"As it looks now, we will not get the deal that we had hoped for," said the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the talks and asked not to be named.
Denmark started the two-week U.N. conference — the largest and most important meeting on climate change in history — hoping to crafting a comprehensive framework to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming and provide funds for poor countries to deal with climate change.
They wanted to get agreement on all the main elements so that a treaty could be signed next year.
But so far the talks have been marked by sharp disagreements between China and the United States — the world's top carbon polluters — and a yawning chasm between rich and poor nations over what should be done.
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