Associated Press
LONDON -- The world has less than two months to agree on how to avoid catastrophic global warming whose impact would be felt for generations, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday, a stark warning that puts pressure on the United States to finalize its position before this year's global climate conference in Denmark.
Brown told delegates to the Major Economies Forum talks in London that countries need to compromise with one another to reach a deal at December's conference to avoid "the catastrophe of unchecked climate change."
"We cannot afford to fail. If we fail now, we will pay a heavy price. ... If we falter, the Earth will itself be at risk," Brown said.
The U.N. conference in Copenhagen will cap two years of negotiations on a global climate change treaty to replace the U.N.'s 1997 Kyoto Protocol on carbon dioxide emissions. Brown, who plans to attend, called on fellow leaders to join him in hammering out an agreement.
"If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: Once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement in some future period can undo that choice. By then it will be irretrievably too late."
Despite Brown's grim warning, the Swedish and British environment ministers said progress had been made on figuring out how funds will be handled to help poor countries adapt to climate change and slow the growth of their own emissions.
"We are more in agreement about how the financial system should be managed, and there is also shared support for the idea that developing countries should be included and have their say in the management of the system," Sweden's Andreas Carlgren told The Associated Press.
President Barack Obama revived the small forum of leading economies earlier this year, but details of the discussions usually are kept confidential.
The United States' climate envoy, Todd Stern, said after the meeting that it was unlikely that President Barack Obama would heed the call to attend the Copenhagen conference in person.
