Denmark Issues Greenhouse Gas Emissions Draft Proposal

The world's first real-time carbon counter which displays greenhouse gas amounts in the atmosphere, erected in New York, USA. Photo by BGNES

Denmark, host of the forthcoming UN Global Climate Change conference, has issued draft proposals for halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2010.

The draft proposes that rich countries should be responsible for the bulk of the cuts, to account for a drop of 80% in global emission cuts by 2050.

It also suggests that 2020 should be the target year when global emissions will peak. However, there is no mention of any mid-term target for developed countries, a key demand from poorer nations.

Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has said that he wants a short and precise "politically binding" agreement, with annexes outlining each country's obligations, such as cuts in emissions by 2020 by developed nations.

He also wants to set a deadline in 2010 by when the deal has to be translated into a legal treaty.

Developing countries led by China and India are also expected to table texts that they would like to be turned into a basis for negotiations.

Hopes are growing that a substantive political pact can be agreed at the December meeting in Copenhagen, especially since both the US and China declared their draft targets during the past few days.

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