Clouds are hanging over current negotiations leading up to the 15th, 192-nation U.N. Climate Change Conference scheduled to be held in Copenhagen Dec. 7-18 for the purpose of adopting a global framework for curbing greenhouse gas emissions from 2013. The Kyoto Protocol now in effect will expire in 2012.
There is a schism between developed and developing countries over specific responsibility for greenhouse-gas emission cuts and technological transfers and financial aid to developing countries to help them curb emissions. Developing countries are calling on developed countries to commit themselves to deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.
Negotiations are so tortuous that Mr. Yvo De Boer, executive director of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, reportedly said it will be "physically impossible under any scenario to complete every detail of a treaty in Copenhagen."