Protests Add Pressure For Copenhagen Climate Deal
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose country is the world’s number four greenhouse gas emitter, announced he would attend a closing summit in Copenhagen, joining 104 other leaders including Obama in a sign of growing momentum for a deal.
In the Danish capital, delegates from 190 nations were gathering for the start of the December 7-18 meeting. The biggest U.N. climate talks in history are aimed at working out a new pact to curb global warming, replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
About 20,000 people marched in London to protest against global warming before the conference, where senior officials will lay the groundwork for the summit. A Greenpeace demonstration in Paris drew 1,500 people.
“We want the most ambitious deal we can get at the climate change talks,” Britain’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC television from the march.
Denmark welcomed Singh’s decision to attend and said that 105 leaders were now due to go.
“India is a key country in the global efforts to tackle climate change,” Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement. “Together these 105 leaders represent 82 percent of mankind, 89 percent of the world’s GDP and 80 percent of the world’s current emissions.”
He added: “If this group of assembled leaders can agree, then their decisions can change the course of the planet.”
