GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has said she will employ her “full strength” to ensure a successful conclusion of the Copenhagen Climate Conference.
The German leader said yesterday she was optimistic that world leaders would be able to agree the main political points of a yet-to-be-agreed treaty.
“This two-degree limit is very ambitious but absolutely necessary. It’s not some political target like limiting bank bonuses that we can choose at will,” she said to journalists in Berlin yesterday. “Here we are confronted with a phenomenon of nature that demands a scientifically grounded answer, it is an issue that is of huge importance to humanity.”
However she is pessimistic about the US providing its share of long-term financing to compensate developing countries disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming.
This financing, she said, was the key to building trust with all parties in the final days of talks – in particular with developing countries – to ensure that each group in turn pulls its weight and signs up to a final agreement.
“Everything here stands under the headline ‘common but different responsibility’. That principle from the Kyoto Protocol remains intact,” she said. “But more countries will have to take on obligations than in the Kyoto Protocol.”
She said that, after agreement on long-term financing from the EU, the US delegation now has a vital role to play.
Dr Merkel said she was aware financing was an issue with which “the Americans have their difficulties”.
But she and the German delegation are hopeful the presence in Copenhagen of US president Barack Obama will increase the likelihood of a deal. Berlin sources claim it was a telephone call from Dr Merkel that prompted the US president to rearrange his plans and attend the closing days of the summit.
“We welcome that the Americans have taken up their work but would naturally wish a bit more movement in American statements,” said Dr Merkel.
“It is possible that we will agree on a political deal but it is not yet secure. It will require difficult work in the next few days but I will bring my entire energy to help things to success.”