Copenhagen, Dec 16 (DPA) Thousands of protesters Wednesday planned to storm the venue of a United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, as negotiators from the nearly 200 countries participating sought to overcome deadlock.
Police in anti-riot gear erected concrete barriers around the Bella Center venue after activists from the Climate Justice Action group said they would attempt to disrupt proceedings.
Danish police apprehended more than 1,200 people during protests that took place over the weekend.
Inside the conference centre, environment ministers were holding talks aimed at keeping global warming in check.
With just a few days left before an agreement is due to be sealed by world leaders, the chairwoman of the conference, Connie Hedegaard, and the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, have both appealed for compromise amid concerns that the talks may be heading for failure.
“The time for unreasonable demands and pressure on your negotiating partners is over. The time for consensus has arrived,” Ban said Tuesday.
Officials say emission cuts by rich nations, and financial aid to poorer nations, are two of the biggest obstacles remaining to an effective political deal.
But other fault lines include: who should manage and hand out the billions of dollars of aid money that poor nations need in order to mitigate and adapt to global warming; and how to verify and enforce emission reduction targets.
Moreover, there is still no consensus on whether to limit global warming to within 2 degrees centigrade against pre-industrial levels, as advised by scientists, or whether to go for a 1.5-degree limit, as requested by low-lying island nations whose survival is threatened by rising sea temperatures.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe were among the world leaders due to address the conference later in the day.
