Ministers struggled to break deadlock in global climate talks yesterday, three days before world leaders are meant to agree a new UN pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish hosts urged countries yesterday to compromise to salvage agreement on a new UN pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change.
"Three years of effort have come down to three days of action," Ban said. "Let us not falter in the home stretch. No one will get everything they want in this negotiation."
"In these very hours we are balancing between success and failure," said Danish President of the two-week meeting, Connie Hedegaard, at the opening of the high-level phase of the talks.
"Success is within reach. But... I must also warn you: We can fail."
The Prince of Wales, who also addressed the delegates yesterday said that the "eyes of the world" were upon them at this "critical time" and that they had the power to "write our future". Prince Charles urged those gathered in Copenhagen "to listen to the cries of those who are already suffering from the impact of climate change".
At the opening ceremony of the summit, the Prince stressed: "The grim reality is that our planet has reached a point of crisis and we have only seven years before we lose the levers of control". He said mankind had the power to push the planet to the brink but also the ability to bring it back into balance.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin that she was "a bit nervous" about the lack of progress at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen.
Organisers of the talks said environment ministers would work deep into night yesterday to narrow wide differences, saying the bulk of the work must be complete before some 130 leaders formally join the December 7-18 meeting tomorrow.
"There's a great deal yet to do, the parties are quite far apart on a fair number of issues," said Todd Stern, US special envoy for climate change, adding he did not expect any change in US targets for emission curbs during the talks.
"We have seen significant progress in a number of areas but UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said there had been significant pro-gress in several areas, "but we haven't seen enough of it... We are in a very important phase."
Talks remained stalled after a stand-off the previous day, held up by disputes over the level of emissions cuts by rich countries and a long-term global target to curb a rise in global temperatures which could trigger rising sea levels, floods and drought.
Ms Hedegaard urged swifter progress, likening the climax of the two-year talks to a looming school exam. "It's just like schoolchildren. If they have a very long deadline to deliver an exercise they wait for the last moment," she said.
Business leaders say they want a clear deal with short and long-term targets so that they can invest appropriately.
"There are still lots of issues that will likely be discussed only at the ministerial level, and that gives us some cause for concern," said Abyd Karmali, global head of emissions trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Major US businesses including Duke Energy, Microsoft and Dow Chemical called for tough US emissions cuts which would mobilise a shift to a greener economy.
Draft texts dated yesterday showed that national negotiators had stripped out figures for long-term global goals and rich nation emissions cuts by 2020 from last week's UN texts. The numbers could be re-inserted if agreement is reached.
India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Reuters that the talks could even break down on "serious" outstanding issues.
Brazil's climate change ambassador Sergio Serra was more upbeat - "You can have a breakthrough ... with the pressure of time and of public opinion ," he told Reuters.