Rich nations would help poorer ones hurt by global warming

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — As President Obama prepared for his visit to the historic climate conference, there were signs Wednesday of a break in the impasse between rich and developing nations.

The United States and Japan agreed to make major contributions to the developing world to keep a deal alive. And the leader of a bloc of African nations said they would accept a smaller — though still sizable — package of financial aid in return for going along with an agreement.

But tear gas hung in the air outside the conference center as protesters demanding faster and more stringent cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions clashed with police. And inside, talks were slowed by disagreements within the developing world — which has proved an unexpectedly powerful and fractious force.

Some environmentalists expressed hope that Obama's appearance Friday, the final day of the 12-day talks, could help conclude these two chaotic weeks with a global deal.

"If the pieces are here, President Obama is the only person who can pull them together into an agreement," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. "We expect him to do so."

Even before the U.N.-led talks began, it was clear they would not deliver what environmental groups initially had hoped for: a global treaty on climate change, with high-emitting countries formally pledging to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in coming decades.

Instead, the goal was to sign a "political agreement," in which nations would pledge to tackle emissions. The understanding was that a formal treaty would come in 2010.

That goal still seemed within reach Wednesday, one day before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives to take part in the negotiations.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it is typical of global conferences that some differences remain when heads of state arrive. Obama will join 118 other world leaders in the Danish capital.

In a moment that distilled the diplomatic dance in Copenhagen, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi — who is representing all of Africa — unveiled his proposal Wednesday for a system in which rich countries would provide money to poor ones to help deal with the effects of climate change. These effects might include rising sea levels, droughts and changing rainfall patterns.

Zenawi said he would accept $30 billion a year in the short term, rising to $100 billion a year by 2020, for poor countries worldwide. This was seen as a key concession by developing countries, which previously spurned that figure — originally proposed by European countries — as too low.

Also Wednesday, Japanese officials said their country would provide $15 billion over three years to help impoverished countries adapt to climate change and lower emissions. That offer would be good, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Tetsuro Fukuyama said, only if a global agreement is reached this week.

"We have to move forward," Fukuyama said. "We have to have an agreement."

The United States has yet to say how much money, if any, it will offer to poor countries for this purpose. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $1 billion in U.S. funding aimed at helping developing countries preserve their forests.

"These types of announcements are exactly what's needed to build trust for an ambitious outcome by the end of the week," said Andrew Deutz, who directs international climate policy for the Nature Conservancy.

Wednesday's progress was mainly concerned with only one of the conference's sticking points: how much the rich should pay the poor. On other questions — including to what extent industrialized and major developing countries should reduce emissions, and how to include these pledges in a global pact — the talks only inched forward.

On Wednesday, for instance, rich and poor countries were disagreeing about the starting point for that debate.

The European Union, Japan, Australia, Russia and Canada want to scrap the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, because the United States and China did not join in its pledges to cut emissions, and start with a new document. But a bloc of poorer countries wants to make the next agreement a formal sequel to the one in Kyoto, which binds most developed countries to emission cuts and provides financing for poor ones.

On Wednesday, many developing countries walked out of negotiations over that disagreement.