International

Climate talks went into disarray today as details of the Danish draft treaty that appear to sideline the Kyoto protocol and the United Nations were leaked, prompting poor countries to react angrily with India insisting that the text was not a formal proposal of the host government.

The G77 countries and China blasted the Danish draft on the third day of the talks, claiming that its strategic intent was aimed at "superimposing a solution".

The Danish draft is seen as a departure from Kyoto and gives control of climate change finance to the World Bank.

Sudanese envoy Lumumba Stanislas Di-Aping, who heads the G77, said the draft detracted from both the substance and procedure of previously agreed deals under
the United Nations Framework Convention and the Bali Action Plan.

He dubbed the leakage of the draft as a "serious and unfortunate development" which threatened the success of the Copenhagen process.

India, which has been privy to the Danish draft, reacted cautiously, saying that the text was not a "formal proposal" by the government.

"The G77 members will not walk out of this negotiation at this late hour because we can't afford a failure in Copenhagen.

"However, we will not sign an unequitable deal. We can't accept a deal that condemns 80% of the world population to further suffering and injustice," Di-Aping said.

The talks were off to a rocky start on the third day of the 12-day conference with the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu walking out of the meeting after the chair refused to discuss
its proposal.

Tuvalu had proposed amending the UN climate treaty to require the world's nations to keep the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Besides, an analysis of the Danish text by the G77 indicated that it would force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement.

But Saran pointed out that the Danish government had clarified that this was but one of several drafts that have been looked at.

Saran has left for India to hold discussions with prime minister Manmohan Singh on the developments in Copenhagen and form the country's stand for the final leg of the talks, which will be attended by over 100 heads of state and government, including Singh.

The UN climate change chief Yvo de Boer also clarified that the Danish text was not an official document presented by Denmark's prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

"This was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations," de Boer said.

The text has been slammed for throwing away the balance of obligations between developed and developing countries on issues like mitigation, protection of intellectual property rights, and financing.

"It sets up a financing and technology mechanism that ensures the flow of finance from South to North through market mechanisms," Di-Aping explained, adding that the text divided developing countries into "vulnerable" and "culpable" as well as "poor" and "most vulnerable".

It is built "to preserve the economic supremacy of the advanced countries and to rob developing countries of just, applicable, and a fair share of atmospheric space," he said.

Amid concerns that many countries may be compelled to sign an incomplete political document to get a deal at the UN climate meet, Saran said no "uncooked" paper should be presented at the summit-level talks next week.

There has been talk that if a legally binding agreement cannot be reached, a political document could be signed by the heads of state, which could be worked into a legally binding document some time next year.

The drafting process under the long-term cooperative action group has begun while the Kyoto protocol team is yet to report progess as developed countries have not indicated
their emission reduction targets for the second commitment period, which begins in 2013.

These processes will continue until December 14, when the chair of the ad-hoc groups will prepare their report to the high-level segment of ministers.