Merkel to urge US to deliver bolder climate change action

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will today call on the US Congress to act now to address the threat of climate change and pass legislation that will increase the chances of an international deal being agreed at the forthcoming UN summit in Copenhagen.

In the first address to Congress by a German Chancellor since 1957, is expected to call on the US to take a leadership position in the on-going climate change talks and sign up to binding emission targets.

Speaking ahead of her first visit to Washington since winning last month's German election, Merkel said that climate change would form a central part of her speech to Congress and her talks with President Obama, describing efforts to tackle rising emissions as "global task we cannot afford to push back".

The Senate is currently in the process of debating a US climate change bill, the passage of which many observers regard as essential to the success of the Copenhagen talks. However, the bill has become mired in political rows with some Democrats expressing scepticism over the legislation and key Republican Senators threatening to boycott committee hearings amidst accusations the bill is being rushed.

Merkel's address comes as negotiators gathering in Barcelona for the last round of talks before the Copenhagen Summit kicks off on 7 December cranked up pressure on the US to commit to binding emission targets as part of an international deal.

Opening the talks, Connie Hedegaard, the Danish environment minister who will host the Copenhagen talks, urged President Obama to play a more constructive role in the negotiations.

"I feel it [is] very hard to imagine how the US president can receive the Nobel peace prize on December 10 in Oslo only a few hundreds kilometres [from Copenhagen] if he has sent an American delegation to Copenhagen with no offer," she said, adding that while the US administration was having understandable difficulties getting climate legislation past Congress "it is not the only country in the world that has to have discussions with its domestic parliament" .

Her comments were echoed by the UN's chief climate change official, Yvo de Boer, who said that it was now "essential" that the US deliver "a clear target" in Copenhagen.

Andreas Carlgren, the Swedish environment minister who is representing the EU presidency at the Barcelona talks, offered an even blunter assessment US prevarication, hinting that US failure to match EU commitments was the main reason the talks have stalled. "President Obama has created great expectations around the world. Now we urge [the US] to contribute in the way that we have," he said. "We are prepared to cut a deal. Other countries should demonstrate leadership and step up their current pledges."

But US chief negotiator Jonathan Pershing insisted the US was playing a constructive role in the negotiations and remained fully committed to delivering an international deal. "Notions that the US is not making an effort is not correct," he said, arguing that the best chance for delivering a binding international deal was to reach an agreement that the US could implement domestically with the approval of Congress. "We and Congress recognise the need to move forward," he added.

Hedegaard said that with only a month to go to the start of the Copenhagen Summit, negotiators in Barcelona would not be able to deliver a completed draft treaty and should therefore focus on developing "clear options" for ministers to decide upon in Copenhagen.

The stand off between the US and other nations, coupled with on-going concerns about the position of China, India and Russia, have further fuelled scepticism that a deal can not be reached in Copenhagen next month. But speaking yesterday, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen insisted that he remained optimistic an agreement would be finalised.

In an interview with Reuters, he said that world leaders remained hugely committed to delivering a Copenhagen Treaty. "Convinced is probably too big a word, but I have decided to stay optimistic about this because I have been engaged in talks with many leaders in the last couple of months and I sense a very strong political willingness to conclude a result in Copenhagen," he said, adding that he was preparing to issue invitations for heads of state and government "in a few weeks time".

In related news, French ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo has revealed that France is preparing a new international plan designed to raise financing for low carbon and climate change adaptation projects in the developing world.

Borloo provided few details scheme, but said that the new "Justice-Climate" plan could raise up to €20 billion a year through a levy on financial transactions.

"The industrialised countries which have polluted a lot should mobilise to finance the development of renewable energy in the most vulnerable countries," he told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

The news comes just days after EU leaders agreed that poorer nations should be provided with up to €100 billion a year in funding by 2020 to help them tackle climate change, with between €22 and €50 billion coming directly from rich nations and the remainder raised through the carbon markets.

However, the deal attracted criticism from green groups who accused the EU of failing to put a precise figure on how much financing it will provide and failing to provide details on how money would be raised through the carbon market.