Copenhagen climate talks deadlocked

Negotiations to hammer out an "equitable and fair" deal on climate change were deadlocked today with countries sticking to their positions on sticky issues like emission cuts as world leaders, including prime minister Manmohan Singh, are set to join the talks.

With just two days left to seal a deal that is acceptable to all, world leaders acknowledged that a deal at Copenhagen would be "very difficult" and there was "no guarantee of accord".

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who is leading the Indian delegation, said the BASIC group — comprising Brazil, South Africa, India and China — "is united and we would like to reiterate that we want an equitable and fair agreement to emerge out of Copenhagen."

"But if for some reasons there are disappointments, BASIC will not be to blame," he told reporters here.  

His statement came as prime minister Manmohan Singh arrives here tomorrow for the final leg of the 12-day climate change summit, which will be attended by US president Barack Obama.

In the midst of nine days of unproductive talks, Connie Hedegaard, the Danish president of the UN climate conference, resigned as the head of the talks to make way for Denmark prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen to give a political push to the negotiations.

Ramesh said, "We will resist in united manner any manipulation to weaken in any way the troika of the UNFCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan," Ramesh said.

In New Delhi, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao made it clear that India would neither agree to legally binding emission cuts nor a peaking year for its carbon emissions. Any international review of India's voluntary and domestically-funded mitigation actions would also be unacceptable, she said.

Negotiators worked through the night in Copenhagen, but failed to resolve major disputes as world leaders began arriving in hopes of signing a deal by Friday.

Hundreds of climate activists were detained for trying to break into the climate summit and establish 'people's assembly', accusing the 193 participating countries of not trying to reach a new deal to combat the menace.

Police fired tear gas and arrested hundreds of protesters near the Bella Centre, the venue of the world's largest conference on Climate, amid apprehensions that the talks may collapse.

In Washington, Obama held a conference call with leaders of Britain, France and Germany, besides calling Bangladeshi and Ethiopian prime ministers in his last ditch effort to arrive at a successful deal on climate change.

"The president believes that we can get an operational agreement that makes sense in Copenhagen over the next few days," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.