A protest boycott by poorer nations threw the Copenhagen climate summit into chaos today.
With just five days left to reach some kind of worldwide settlement discussions stopped as the group of 135 developing nations refused to participate in any working groups until a row over the conference agenda was settled.
Eventually towards the end of the day a solution was found in the dispute over the balance of cuts and aid between rich and poor countries and negotiators began trying to get the summit back on track.
The walkout was timed to take place before the arrival of more than 110 world leaders later this week.
The developing nations were trying to shift the UN talks’ agenda to focus on the responsibilities of the industrial countries to halt global warming.
The boycott was largely seen as a ploy to shift the emphasis on to the the industrial countries and make emissions reductions the first item for discussion when world leaders begin arriving.
“I don’t think the talks are falling apart, but we’re losing time,” said Kim Carstensen, of the World Wildlife Fund. He said the developing countries were “making a point”.
Zia Hoque Mukta, a delegate from Bangladesh, said developing countries demanded that conference president Connie Hedegaard bring the industrial nations’ emissions targets to the top of the agenda before talks can resume.
Poor countries, supported by China, say Ms Hedegaard had raised suspicions that the conference was likely to kill the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which limited carbon emissions by wealthy countries and imposed penalties for failing to meet those targets.
Mr De Boer said that Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard, presiding at the meeting, would hold talks to appoint environment ministers to try to break deadlock in key areas, such as the depth of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations by 2020, and cash to help the poor.
Developing nations want to extend the existing Kyoto Protocol, which obliges rich nations except the US to cut emissions of greenhouse gases until 2012, and work out a separate new deal for developing nations.
But most rich nations want to merge the 1997 Kyoto Protocol into a new, single accord with obligations for all as part of an assault on global warming.
"We need two-track outcomes," Mr Djemouai said, wearing a button on his jacket saying "Kyoto Yes".
Most developed nations favour a single track largely because the United States, the number two greenhouse gas emitter behind China, is outside Kyoto. They fear signing up for a new Kyoto while Washington slips away with a less strict regime alongside big developing nations.
Meanwhile climate campaigner Al Gore told the conference that new data suggest the Arctic polar ice cap may disappear in the summer as soon as five years from now.
The former US vice president joined the foreign ministers of Norway and Denmark in presenting two new reports on the melting ice of the Arctic.
The Arctic Ocean sea ice has shrunk dramatically, to record low levels, the past several summers. Scientists blame global warming, which has raised temperatures twice as fast in the far north as elsewhere on the globe.
Mr Gore said polar scientists told him the latest data “suggest a 75 percent chance the entire polar ice cap will melt in summer within the next five to seven years.”
AP/Reuters