The Danish presidency of the Copenhagen conference of 192 countries is struggling to revive negotiations after talks collapsed overnight with developing nations saying no common ground had been found on the texts being discussed.
A glimmer of hope emerged as minister of state for environment and forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said the negotiations were back on track because of “sustained pressure from India.”
What this will eventually lead to will be known only on Friday when over 120 heads of state and government, including the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Chinese Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao, and the US President, Mr Barack Obama, try to force a declaration. For now, India, despite its tough posturing, seems to have yielded significant ground to make a resolution happen.
Sounding upbeat about a resolution materialising, Mr Ramesh said, “There was almost 75 per cent agreement with the US on the question of transparency and difference remained on 25 per cent on reporting and verification. He also welcomed the US secretary of state, Ms Hillary Clinton’s announcement of American contribution to a $100 billion climate cleanup fund.
Earlier on Thursday Denmark seemed to have given up efforts to push a text for the meeting that was strongly resisted by India, China and the G-77 nations.
Just a day before the closure of the climate change summit, its fate still hangs in balance as heads of state and government in Denmark began hectic parleys to approve an agreed document which has so far proved elusive. Now it would be up to the leaders of the US, China, India and other G-77 nations to forge a last-minute agreement.
Denmark was said to be working on a “political agreement” text that would postpone the decisions on the Kyoto Protocol and the long-term cooperative action to next year. British PM Gordon Brown was also said to be bringing together negotiators for an agreed text. Strong doubts were expressed by many delegates that the talks could be saved, though executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer said that with the intervention of Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen the negotiators had agreed to resume talks through “contact groups” on the two tracks — the Kyoto Protocol and cooperative action. He said the developing countries had made it clear they would not accept “a text from the sky”.
Negotiators are now expected to try and forge a deal by talking late into Thursday night.
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