UN averts climate collapse by "noting" new deal

U.N. climate talks avoided a total collapse on Saturday by skirting bitter opposition from several nations to a deal championed by the U.S. President Barack Obama and five emerging economies including China.

"Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this decision...is an important beginning."

But a decision at marathon 193-nation talks merely took note of the new accord, a non-binding deal for combating global warming led by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

The 193 nations stopped far from a full endorsement of the plan, which sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degree Celsius rise over pre-industrial times and holds out the prospect of $100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations.

The plan does not specify greenhouse gas cuts needed to achieve the 2 Celsius goal that is seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas.

The Copenhagen Accord may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this decision...is an important beginning

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Half a dozen developing countries ripped into the deal blasting the document as a cozy backdoor deal that violated UN democracy, excluded the poor and doomed the world to catastrophic climate change.

"It looks like we are being offered 30 pieces of silver to betray our people and our future," said Ian Fry of Tuvalu, a tiny Pacific island whose very existence is threatened by rising seas.

In remarks that sparked immediate condemnation from Western nations, Sudan's outspoken delegate, Lumumba Stanislas Dia-ping, who chairs a bloc of 130 poor nations, said the pact meant "incineration" for Africa and was comparable to the Holocaust.

Frenzied game

The agreement was assembled in a frenzied game of climate poker among the leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa and major European countries.

The group had been chosen by conference chair Denmark after it became clear the summit was in danger of failure.

The outcome in Copenhagen will deliver a boost to Obama's efforts to secure legislation in the U.S. Congress that would set his country on a path to lower emissions by around 17 percent by 2020 over a 2005 benchmark.

He described the deal as a "meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough."

"Going forward, we are going to have to build on the momentum we have achieved here in Copenhagen. We have come a long way but we have much further to go," he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will host the next climate summit in mid-2010, said she viewed the result "with mixed emotions" but added that "the only alternative to the agreement would have been a failure."

China had bristled at anything called "verification" of its plan to cut the intensity of its carbon emissions, seeing it as an infringement of sovereignty and saying rich nations bore primary responsibility for global warming.

Disagreements between the China and United States—the world's top two carbon polluters—had been at the core of the divisions.

The Copenhagen Accord was met with dismay by campaigners, who said it was weak, non-binding and sold out the poor.

Going forward, we are going to have to build on the momentum we have achieved here in Copenhagen. We have come a long way but we have much further to go

U.S. President Barack Obama