called for climate negotiators gathered in
to speed up talks to clinch an agreement by next year on how to curb the output
of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
and therefore we must fly faster,”
minister, said on Thursday at the opening of talks in
The meeting needs to deliver a “clear package of options” for restricting
emissions, said Connie Hedegaard,
nations are negotiating a deal, overseen by the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change. World carbon dioxide emissions from energy use
rose 2.8% last year as coal consumption outpaced crude oil and clean-burning
natural gas, according to BP Plc data.
suffered droughts and floods in the past year, as well as “rolling blackouts”
because a dam that supplies much of the nation’s power had insufficient water,
Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor told negotiators. “The clock is
ticking,” Kufuor said in speeches broadcast on a UN website. “We need more
than rhetoric.”
December agreed to meet through the end of 2009 to negotiate new limits to
emissions blamed for climate change, replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which
sets limits for some nations through 2012.
