Developing nations demanded deeper emissions cuts from rich nations, particularly the United States, at UN climate talks in Denmark Tuesday, as a study showed that 2009 is the fifth warmest year on record. The first decade of this century was also the hottest since records began, the World Meteorological Organisation said, underscoring the threat scientists say the planet faces from rising temperatures. A record 15,000 participants at the talks are trying to work out a climate pact to combat rising seas, desertification, floods and cyclones that could devastate economies and ruin the livelihoods of millions of people. But negotiators are struggling to reach agreement on the depth of emissions cuts needed to slow the pace of climate change and are worried about the cost to their economies of switching from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner energy. “We're off to a good start,” Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said of the Dec 7-18 talks. He urged delegates to sort out technical details of an accord but said that the big issues such as emissions targets for rich nations and funds for the poor would have to wait for a Dec. 18 summit that will be attended by over 100 world leaders. Emission cuts offers from rich nations were far below what was needed, Dessima Williams of Grenada, chair of the 43-nation Alliance of Small Island States, told Reuters. AOSIS wants emissions cut 45 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. “Our 45 percent remains on the table. Germany is at 40, the EU as a whole and some other countries are at 30. This is the time to escalate, to be ambitious,” she said. Washington, whose provisional offer to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels works out at just 3 percent below 1990 levels, said on Monday it had legal authority to curb planet-warming emissions, a step delegates cautiously welcomed. The US Environmental Protection Agency ruled that greenhouse gases endanger human health, allowing it to regulate them without legislation from the Senate, where a bill to cut US emissions by 2020 is stalled.
