Sweden’s environment minister, Anders Carlgren, speaking for the European Union, said it would be “astonishing’’ if President Obama delivered only the modest cuts now offered when he comes for the final negotiation session next week.
But Obama’s decision to attend at the end of the conference, not the middle, was taken as a signal that an agreement was getting closer. In a signal that the US administration is prepared to act without congressional action, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that it has concluded that greenhouse gases are endangering Americans’ health and must be regulated.
The first week of the conference will focus on refining the complex text of a draft treaty. Major decisions will await the arrival next week of 110 environment ministers and heads of state in the final days of the conference, which ends Dec. 18.
Delegates are trying to reach a deal to wean the world away from fossil fuels and other pollutants to greener sources of energy and to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars from rich to poor countries every year, over decades, to help them adapt to climate change.
Conference president Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s former climate minister, said if governments miss their chance at the Copenhagen summit, “it could take years before we got a new and better one, if we ever do.’’
Some 15,000 delegates, environmentalists, business lobbyists, journalists, and others gathered in the huge convention center for the pivotal talks, along with thousands more outside planning protests, street theater, and scholarly discussions.
Delegates were shown video clips of children from around the globe urging them to let them grow up without facing catastrophic warming. Climate activists competed for attention to their campaigns on deforestation, clean energy, and low-carbon growth.
The colorful global show demonstrated that the future of the Earth’s climate is the future of everyone, from Eskimos and Midwest farmers to oil sheiks and African peasants.
