"Danish Text" shelved in attempt to win over developing countries

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said today that he would not propose controversial new draft texts at the Copenhagen Summit, and that negotiators should continue to work on the two texts released by the UN yesterday.

The move led to the re-start of negotiations which had stalled yesterday in the face of entrenched opposition to the Danish proposal that new draft texts be tabled in an attempt to break the deadlock. Many poor countries feared that any new draft texts would subvert the long-running UN negotiating process and effectively water down obligations for industrialised countries.

Speaking earlier today, Rasmussen told reporters that the hosts had yielded to calls for the new draft texts to be scrapped. "No other texts will be used," he said, adding that negotiators would now work on a draft text to extend the Kyoto Protocol and alternative UN text to extend climate change commitments to all countries.

"The conference is now at a critical juncture and we have now agreed how to proceed," Rasmussen said. "We now rely on the willingness of all parties to take that extra step to make that deal that is expected of us."

The move will further bolster optimism that negotiators are finally beginning to map out compromise positions as the summit approaches its final day.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the prospects of a deal a major boost by announcing that the US would support plans for a $100bn a year global climate fund for developing countries if a "strong operational accord" is achieved and China accepts independent verification of its greenhouse gas emission performance.

However, the optimism was deflated somewhat by reports from Reuters that the negotiations to reform the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) offset scheme had stalled after a promising early start.

The news agency said that progress had been halted by a row between a Brazil and Saudi Arabia over which emission reduction projects should be eligible for the CDM. Brazil is pushing for avoided deforestation initiatives to qualify for the CDM and be allowed to issue tradable Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, but Saudi Arabia has contested the proposal arguing that carbon capture and storage projects should instead be included in the scheme.

"All the measures that would allow this mechanism to scale up, including standardized baselines, more due process and more transparency are being blocked by Brazil," one advisor to the negotiators told Reuters. "The Brazilian forestry proposal and the Saudi Arabian carbon capture and storage (CCS) proposal have been contested by each other since day one... This could be a deal-breaker at every level and could hold up a final agreement."

Neither side appears willing to compromise with each fearful that inclusion of both types of project would dilute financial support for their own initiatives.

The source said told Reuters that while a number of important reforms had been agreed, including measures to streamline project registration and imporve CDM Executive Board processes, debates were on-going about plans to make CDM approval processes more transparent and allow entire sectors to join the scheme.

He added that China was also pushing for the inclusion of a clause that would stop the CDM board passing judgement on countries domestic clean technology policies after it recently rejected applications from 10 wind farms over an alleged cut in government subisidies to the Chinese wind energy sector.