November 30, 2009. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Copenhagen Climate conference -- United Kingdom
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, November 30, Graphic News:  "For the planet, there is no Plan B", Prime Minister Gordon Brown told world leaders in October, when he urged them to speed up progress before the Copenhagen summit. However, with time running out, it seems that a Plan B is exactly what the UK is now hoping to salvage: political agreement followed by a treaty in up to a year's time.

Brown has been praised for securing an agreement for an £89bn annual fund for poor nations to tackle global warming by 2020, after EU griping made heavy weather of the negotiations. The deal boosts his reputation for sticking up for the less fortunate, and the UK has been in the vanguard of EU efforts to lead the way in Denmark.

But the EU will only agree to increase its carbon cuts to 30 percent if the big emitters do the same, and that looks increasingly unlikely. After Met Office scientists released a new report on global warming on British shores, including the statistics that summers in London are expected to be two degrees Centigrade hotter by 2040, the UK government is feeling the heat. 
/ENDS