Copenhagen teeters on the brink of failure

The last embers of hope that a meaningful deal could be reached at the Copenhagen Summit were on the verge of being extinguished this afternoon as a series of leaked draft documents revealed leaders are on the brink of signing up to an agreement that contains no short term emission targets and only vague commitments on climate funding.

Leaders have entered into a third round of last ditch talks, but in a worrying development the BBC reported that Chinese premier Wen Jiabao had sent a representative to the meeting.

The meeting came as a series of leaked draft documents, seen by the Guardian and a number of news agencies, revealed that leaders remain a long way for delivering a meaningful agreement.

All short term emissions targets for 2020 have been strippped out of the text and the only emissions targets contained in the draft documents are weak, long-term aspirations to cut global emissions 50 per cent by 2050, cut emissions from industrialised countries 80 per cent by 2050, and aim to keep average temperature increases below 2C.

One of the text circulated to negotiators at the talks even dropped the commitment to ensure a legally binding treaty is signed next year, raising the prospect of the talks continuing indefinitely.

Commitments on climate funding, which had appeared to have been resolved earlier in the day, also appeared to be at risk with the Guardian reporting that the draft text only committed countries to "a goal of mobilising $100bn by 2020".

British energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband had said that a deal without short term emission targets would constitute a failure for the summit.

With fears mounting that the talks could collapse, attention turned to who to blame for the impasse with the industrialised countries accusing China of blocking a more ambitious agreement and a number of poorer nations arguing that US President Barack Obama had torpedoed any chance of a deal being reached by failing to offer any significant concessions in his speech this morning.

Confusion continued to reign over whether the talks would run over into tomorrow. EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said earlier in the day that the UN had asked world leaders to stay an extra day in an attempt to salvage a deal, but separate reports this afternoon said that the talks would finish early this evening.

However, there was some good news for green businesses in the series of speeches this morning from Obama, Wen, and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Each of the addresses were regarded as disappointing by many observers at the summit, who criticised them for containing no new substantive commitments. But in a move that will serve to boost investor confidence in clean technologies, the leaders reiterated that their domestic commitments to curb emissions and transition to a lower carbon economy were unconditional and would continue regardless of whether an international deal is reached or not.