COPENHAGEN — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton threw a climate change Hail Mary on Thursday in hopes of salvaging the Copenhagen talks from collapse – pledging U.S. participation in a multinational fund to provide poor nations with a $100 billion a year by 2020.
Clinton, who flew into Copenhagen as China’s representatives balked at a deal requiring them to provide transparency on emissions, made her offer contingent on China’s acceptance of a comprehensive “operative agreement” fiercely resisted by Beijing.
"It would be hard to imagine, speaking for the United States, that there could be the level of financial commitment I have just announced in the absence of transparency from [China], the [world’s] second biggest emitter,” she told reporters.
The Chinese delegation had no immediate response but cancelled a previously scheduled news conference after the secretary spoke.
China's lead negotiator at the talks, Su Wei, told Bloomberg News that a
COP-15 pact was still possible and Beijing "hopes" it could be translated into a final deal "by the middle of next year, if possible, or if not, then by the end of the year."
Clinton pointedly reminded China that President Hu Jintao personally assured President Barack Obama that Beijing was committed to a comprehensive deal that includes some kind of international verification of claims that China will drastically reduce its pollution.
“All major countries [must] stand behind full transparency,” added Clinton, who called China’s no-transparency position a “deal-breaker.”
The offer puts the U.S. at the low end of offers made by other industrialized nations – but significantly increases the U.S. commitment, which had previously been a more vague pledge to provide $10 billion per year over the next few years.
The fund, which would go to developing nations who bear the brunt of global warming, could be replenished from a variety of sources, Clinton said, including with unspecified public, private and “alternative” revenues. Many advocates of the approach believe such subsidies are likely to come from cap-and-trade revenues or carbon taxes.
It’s not clear if Clinton’s commitment would be contingent on the Senate’s passage of its stalled climate change bill.
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