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GCN in Copenhagen: Climate talks hang in balance over Island's Treaty Proposal

10 December 2009

Talks at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen remained suspended on Thursday morning after a proposal from Tuvala, a pacific island nation under threat from see-level rise, caused deep rifts among developing countries.

Tuvala wants a binding treaty signed at Copenhagen rather than a political accord and also wants emissions reduction targets capable of keeping atmospheric concentration levels of carbon dioxide below 350 part per million. Larger developing countries, whose negotiators rejected Tuvalu's proposal, have been crafting their own proposed agreement, which argues strongly for developed countries to agree to a second, much more ambitious phase of the Kyoto Protocol.

Read the Brazil, South Africa, India and China text

In the meantime, Richard Black - the BBC's highly regarded, long time climate negotiations correspondent - is reporting having seen a further text from the Least Developed Countries, which argues for much steeper emissions cuts and more money to help their citizens adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Such is the interest in the Copenhagen summit it has, according to its Danish organisers, become the number one search on Google.