New York - Denmark said Wednesday the world's governments are facing complicated negotiations ahead of a final meeting in Copenhagen in December to reach an international climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister for climate and energy who will preside over the Copenhagen conference, was at UN headquarters in New York to discuss the difficult negotiations for an agreement to replace the current agreement that expires in 2012.
The coming months are crucial to nail down all the details in the new document after a conference in Bonn, Germany, and upcoming meetings in Greenland, the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Italy and the September 22 climate change meeting in New York, where heads of state and government are to meet in the UN General Assembly.
"It is the most complicated piece of negotiations involving all the ministers in the world," Hedegaard said between meetings at UN headquarters, adding a note of optimism that progress has been made through several rounds of talks in various capitals.
Hedegaard was recently named by Time Magazine as one of 100 most influential people in the world for her role in fighting climate change.
"Lately the political atmosphere has improved significantly," she said. "The willingness and awareness that we are all going to deliver in Copenhagen have increased a lot."
She said the new US government under President Barack Obama has contributed to the momentum by pledging to support the Copenhagen summit, which will take place December 7 to 18.
Hedegaard said negotiators for the new Kyoto Protocol have to agree on what she called "crunch issues" before December, which cover such diverse issues as financing, forestry and building codes, all of which are designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
She said one significant conference will take place at the end of June in Greenland to be attended by 30 top-ranking ministers to work out the political declaration supporting the new protocol. The ministers will be accompanied by only one assistant each and they will be asked to produce the document in the confined space in Greenland.
The Greenland meeting will precede the G8 summit in Italy in July. The pre-final push for governments to support the Copenhagen conference will be held in New York on September 22 at the United Nations.
