Adding to the growing flux of carbon emissions into the atmosphere is the burst of hot air issuing from the world’s most powerful leaders who, to the dismay of the G77 countries, reached an ‘11th hour agreement between 27 key countries on a watered-down declaration’, reports Denmark’s Politiken.

South Africa’s Mail & Guardian writes that Sudan’s delegation spoke in less euphemistic terms, saying that the results of the brokered accord in Africa ‘would be like the Holocaust by causing more deadly floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas.’ According to Sudan’s Lumumba Stanislaus Di-aping, the document ‘is a solution based on the same very values, in our opinion, that channelled six million people in Europe into furnaces.’

Despite Sudan’s strong language, which received a rebuke from Sweden’s chief negotiator Anders Turesson, Bangladesh’s The Daily Star confirms the G77’s opinion that the deal is ‘inadequate.’

As The Guardian writes:

The deal was brokered between China, South Africa, India, Brazil and the US, but late last night it was still unclear whether it would be adopted by all 192 countries in the full plenary session.

The agreement aims to provide $30bn in funding for poor countries to adapt to climate change from next year to 2012, and $100bn a year after 2020.

But it disappointed African and other vulnerable countries who had been holding out for far deeper emission cuts to hold the global temperature rise to 1.5C this century. As widely expected, all references to 1.5C in previous drafts were removed at the last minute, but more surprisingly, the earlier 2050 goal of reducing global CO2 emissions by 80% was also dropped.

It would appear, then, that the developed countries lacked the ‘moral leadership’ Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed called for during a meeting with President of the European Commission, Mr José Manuel Durão Barroso. Miadhu News, in fact, states that in ‘referring to the EU’s commitment to reducing emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 30% when other developed countries make comparable efforts, President Nasheed stated that the 30% target should not be conditional.’

However, New Scientist writes in its blog that the result of this much-hyped gathering is a ‘draft text [which] is the most vague we’ve seen so far, with all specific targets for cutting emissions stripped out, replaced by a list of the commitments that various nations have already made.’

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Another drama has been averted today at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, where the African and poorer countries are reported to have temporarily boycotted meetings on the future of the Kyoto Agreement, says Politiken.

But after a meeting with Climate Summit Minister Connie Hedegaard, negotiators decided to resume talks, according to TV2.

African countries in particular have been incensed in recent days over what they see as the meagre progress of the summit and in particular the funding so far on the table. At the same time, they are unhappy with the reluctance among industrialised nations to prolong the Kyoto Agreement.

As a result, the countries decided to boycott further meetings on the future of Kyoto, but have now resumed meetings.

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Tensions between rich and poor nations at the Copenhagen climate negotiations have boiled to the surface with the leaking of a “secret” draft agreement prepared by the Danish host government and a select “circle of commitment” including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, writes The Australian.

The leaked document rocked the United Nations conference as it settled down to its first full day of talks, with developing countries expressing outrage at its contents, and at the fact that it had been developed behind closed doors by the so-called “friends” of the Danish conference chair, Mr Rudd, UN secretary Ban Ki Moon and leaders from other countries including the UK, Sweden, Mexico.

The Danish Government protested that there was no “secret draft for a new Copenhagen Agreement” but rather “many working papers used for testing various positions”.

Privately negotiators were furious that developing nations had resorted to such a “hostile act” because they were nervous about possible outcomes in a final climate deal.

But despite the hosts’ attempts to hose down the leak, it has ignited tensions that were not expected to spark until the top-level leaders segment of the talks next week.

Despite all the controversy, the draft “Copenhagen Agreement” contains many elements of a strong political deal, although it leaves blank critical emission reduction commitments and the amounts to be paid into new funding for developing countries for final determination.

It includes a commitment to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius and – in brackets to acknowledge it is not yet fully agreed – the proposition that global emissions should peak in 2020.

But developing countries and conservationists were deeply concerned that it did not set a timetable for a final binding agreement, nor specify that such an agreement should be in the form of a legally binding treaty, nor propose a future role for the existing Kyoto Protocol.

Instead it says the deal should lead to a “comprehensive legal framework” by an unspecified date.

Read more here.

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The United Nations Climate boss Yvo de Boer says that the 193 countries that are taking part in the COP15 Climate Summit have to speed up their negotiations, reports Politiken.

“As soon as this conference is over, things have to happen. So my call to people is that they should use this first week to get all the basic work done,” Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer says at a news conference on the second day of the summit.

Negotiators have been working for months to reach agreement on texts, work that is now reaching a climax prior to the arrival in Copenhagen next week of heads of state and government.

One of the main issues at stake is ways to finance efforts by poor countries to mitigate climate change. Developing and industrial countries remain at loggerheads as to how much transfer funding is needed to help developing countries.

“I am sure that the conference will result in action and support for the developing countries. There is an immediate need of USD 10 billion in 2010, 2011 and 2012. And much greater funding in the future. I sense a growing understanding about this,” de Boer says.

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As India marks the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, which The Hindustan Times rightly calls ‘one of the world’s worst industrial disasters,’ the Indian Express writes that India today offered to effect at least a 20 per cent cut in its carbon intensity by 2020 over 2005 levels, hoping this would satisfy demands from developed countries for some sort of quantified commitments.

Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Parliament today that India would reduce its carbon intensity by a minimum of 20 per cent and “most likely 25 per cent” by the year 2020, a target that is quite conservative considering the trend observed in carbon intensity over the last two decades.

Ramesh added that India would do “more,” if there was a “satisfactory and equitable” agreement in Copenhagen.

Read more here.

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Over the past year the countries of Africa have intensified their efforts to build a coalition on climate change. Across the continent, governments and communities have been working to ensure that their concerns and expectations are heard at the Copenhagen climate negotiations later this month.

Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change. In our lifetimes, climate shifts will likely inflict severe damage to human welfare in a continent already battling with entrenched poverty, degraded ecosystems and civil strife.

But Africa’s potential to help tackle climate change is both largely unrecognized and unrealized. For instance, thanks to the forest cover and rich topsoil found in many African countries, the region represents a major carbon storehouse. African forests take in 20 percent of the carbon that is absorbed by trees across the world. Its soil stores at least as great a share of the planet’s carbon produced by agriculture.

Climate change management thus offers a number of “win-win” opportunities for African countries both to reduce the adverse effects of climate change and address some of their deep-rooted development concerns such as access to energy, food security and the prevention of crises and conflicts.

While these key issues should serve as the core pillars of Africa’s engagement in the negotiations, the next question is how to transform these opportunities into concrete actions and results.

Africa will require urgent support for the formulation of climate change strategies as well as upfront financing to take effective measures for adaptation and mitigation.

Read more here.

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Climate activists are gearing up for the UN Climate Change Conference in two weeks, but face harsh jail conditions if arrested, reports The Copenhagen Post.

Legislation was recently tightened to allow police to hold protestors for up to 40 days if they hinder police work and the already overstretched prison service is gearing up for new arrivals.

Vestre Fængsel prison in Copenhagen is preparing to house those who are being held in custody by doubling up on cell-space and holding others in the prison gym and workshop areas.

The prison houses many pre-trial detainees and if climate protestors are added to the current population, prison warden Peter Vesterheden warned that conditions would not be ideal.

‘There’s no doubt that they’ll be bored and really surly,’ Vesterheden told DR News.

The warden said they plan to convert the gym to house 40 inmates temporarily, sleeping on mattresses on the floor at night. Single person cells of 8sqm will double up to house two inmates – one on the bunk and one on the floor.

A further 30 temporary detainees may be housed at the Ellebæk detention centre next to the Sandholm Asylum Centre in North Zealand.

Activists have also been warned by police not to spread advice that could lead to criminal behaviour.

A number of manuals on how to avoid the police and deal with them in case of arrest have been circulating on activists’ websites.

Organisations for trafficked women have noticed rise in number of prostitutes and women being bought as personal sex slaves, says The Copenhagen Post.

Anti-human trafficking organisation The Nest International has raised concerns over the number of instances of women being brought into Denmark as personal sex-slaves.

According to the organisation the number of foreign prostitutes on the streets of Copenhagen has increased by up to 20 percent in the last six months, and a number of women have been brought into the country under disturbing circumstances.

A high-profile case a few months ago saw a 22-year-old Nigerian woman being kept as a sex-slave at a remote Danish farm for two months before she escaped.

The Nest International’s Vibeke Lenskjold told Urban newspaper that this form of slavery takes place all over the country, including in rural towns.

‘We know stories of men that head out abroad and bring a woman home. She thinks she’ll get married and live an ordinary life, but instead she’s held captive and abused,’ Lenskjold said.

US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama, says Germany’s Der Spiegel in an editorial.

Only if the US manages to reduce its excessive energy consumption, commit itself to mandatory CO2 emission reduction targets and help finance the move away from oil for poorer countries, is there still a chance that countries like China and India will do the same and that a dangerous warming of the Earth can be stopped. On the weekend, Obama announced that there would be no agreement on binding rules in Copenhagen. It was the admission of a massive failing — and the prelude to a truly dramatic phase of international climate policy.

Barack Obama cast himself as a “citizen of the world” when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely his country’s addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change.

Read more here.

A government package designed, among other things, to help stop trouble at the COP15 summit by detaining troublemakers, may not have the desired effect as the country’s prisons are full up.

“There simply is no space for a major influx during the summit. We have neither the cells nor personnel to handle, for example, 500 extra remand cases,” Danish Prison Officer Association Kim Østerbye tells Politiken via Berlingske Tidende.

The so-called Lout Package has been designed to reduce public disturbances in connection with major events, and to keep COP15 calm.

It allows for a 40-day remand of activists who prevent police carrying out their duties. This could, for example, be when activists chain themselves to each other to prevent their removal. It also provides for a six-hour increase in administrative preventive detentions to 12 hours.