by Jim Tankersley
COPENHAGEN -- Attempting to revive climate negotiations that appear dangerously close to flat-lining, the Obama administration announced today that it would join allies in raising $100 billion by 2020 to help the world's poorest countries adapt to climate change.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a press conference here that the unspecified American share of the money would come from public and private sources, would fund measures such as protecting carbon-heavy forests from logging and would be contingent up nations reaching a broad agreement here that would lay the groundwork for a new global warming treaty.
Echoing the most insistent American demand throughout the talks, she said that agreement must make clear that developing nations such as China and India will limit their greenhouse gas emissions as their economies grow, and that those limits must be subject to some form of outside check to ensure they are met.
"If there is not even a commitment to pursue transparency, that's kind of a deal-breaker for us," Clinton said.
The announcement came after Chinese officials warned other nations during overnight talks that China was doubtful any broad agreement could be reached in Copenhagen, according to multiple sources close to the Chinese delegation.
Some of those sources said China was backing away from that rhetoric Thursday morning, even before Clinton's funding announcement; in recent days, Chinese officials had cited a lack of long-term finance commitment from the United States and other wealthy nations as a major stumbling block to a deal.
Environmental groups and other non-profits working closely with the negotiators here said the U.S. funding announcement - which follows major commitments from Japan, France and other developed nations - could break what has been a nearly two-week deadlock on key issues.
Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club, called it "truly a bombshell." Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations for the Nature Conservancy, called it "a huge step forward toward common ground" and "the type of high-level political offer that we've been looking for world leaders to bring to Copenhagen to reach a global deal."
More strident groups said the money fell short. "Climate change is already killing people in Africa and this commitment is simply insufficient to tackle the climate crisis," said Mithika Mwenda, coordinator of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, in a press release.
Government officials and observers involved with the talks said in recent days that a major U.S. funding announcement could trigger a chain reaction leading to a broad agreement.
The long-term money offer, those sources said, could win over African and island-nation delegates who have long complained wealthy nations are not offering deep enough reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The African and island-nation delegates could then pressure China and India to compromise with the United States on transparency provisions - thereby clearing the two largest hurdles to accord.
All sides in the negotiations admit time in running short, with world heads of state beginning to arrive en masse today - President Obama lands here early Friday - and the conference scheduled to end on Friday.





Comments
As usual, the DNC Swamp gives only one side of the story.
And it's easy to see why the DNC Swamp avoids mentioning the other side--people who will point out that this whole "climate" deal amounts to the US funneling tens of billions of our tax dollars to corrupt Third World dictators.
Posted by: Bruce | December 17, 2009 9:07 AM
AMERICA IS HORRIBLE, BAD URRRR UNTIL WE NEED SOME MONEY FROM THEM.
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HAVE A HARRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9CKOK8G0&show_article=1
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 17, 2009 9:12 AM
HEY WASN'T OBUMMER HANGING WITH HIS SOCIALIST PAL HUGO? CAREFUL OF THE COMPANY YOU KEEP.
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http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/12/the_ghost_in_the_room_at_copen.html
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 17, 2009 9:15 AM
To Don Fitzgerald
Are you going to join all your spineless dummiecrat brothers and sisters and raise this money? After all, its guilt ridden people like you and your party that feel your at fault for everything that is wrong in the world today, except of course, here in the US. Maybe you should move to one of these poor countries and offer your exceptional tallents to improve their lot in life.
Posted by: Fed up with Liberal Whining | December 17, 2009 9:17 AM
The warming is coming! It’s scary! It’s bad!
The ice-caps are melting! The bears are so sad!
Soon they will drown and it’s ALL YOUR DARN FAULT!
So pay double for everything, now, at WalMart!
When energy doubles and triples and more,
It’s just the beginning – all prices will soar!
The warming is coming! It’s scary! It’s bad!
The ice-caps are melting! The bears are so sad!
So pay more for food – c’mon – go and see!
The corn tastes much better in my SUV!
Tax ‘em says Waxman – and Markey agrees -
By spending our wages on these fantasies,
In ten years we might cool .01 degrees!
The warming is coming! It’s scary! It’s bad!
The ice-caps are melting! The bears are so sad!
Let’s go! Get aboard! This train’s out the station,
Don’t breathe out Co2 – that’s so out of fashion!
Carbon’s connected to all human efforts,
Taxed and controlled, it’s like a collective,
Oh, poor broken earth – your fever’s infected!
The warming is coming! It’s scary! It’s bad!
The ice-caps are melting! The bears are so sad!
Throw money, throw jobs, throw whatever you’ve got,
To cool every nation on earth, and, if not,
Then throw out science and all rational thinking -
Hey – it’s not like we’ll miss it – our brains have gone missing -
Sold like our souls for Gore’s fat commission…
The warming is coming! It’s already here!
Now gimme your wallet -You’ll pay for that fear…
©2009 Dave Stephens
http://www.caricaturesbydave.com
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 17, 2009 9:32 AM
Now that is putting your money where your mouth is and, on behalf of America, I salute President Obama !! I salute him for his positive step, in letting the world know, America is ready to do her part, in ending the destruction of our earth environment !! We have a lot of catching-up to do, given the previous administrations AWOL status !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | December 17, 2009 9:35 AM
If the Obama administration believes they can obtain the approval of the American people to send 100 billion dollars to foreign nations to address global warming they had better stick a needle into themselves and wake up.
This proposal would lead to a bigger deficit, higher national debt and increased taxes.
This is what is an example of what is wrong inside the beltway and is an example of why the common folk have lost faith in the Democrats and President Obama.
Posted by: Pat H | December 17, 2009 9:42 AM
Success on health reform holds risks for Democrats
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/16/AR2009121601880.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
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President Obama needs an exit strategy. I am not referring to Afghanistan or Iraq (though there are quite a few similarities between the situation Obama is in on health-care reform and the political difficulties President George W. Bush faced on Iraq). Congressional Democrats and Obama are headed toward a "catastrophic success" politically if they pass health-care reform in its current legislative form.
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 17, 2009 9:56 AM
There are actual news stories from Copenhagen. Stories that the DNC Swamp refuses to mention.
1) Hypocrisy stories. How the airport is jammed with private jets. How the carbon-saving delegates hired gas-guzzling limos to take them to the conference. How Prince Charles flew his private jet there in order to denounce carbon emissions.
2) Fraud and lie stories: How Al Gore made up his latest scare about the polar icecaps melting in 5 years, a scare even his cited source denounced. How Al Gore invents things about malaria in Kenya. ClimateGate and related stories of how the climate data was "lost". The phony delegates.
3) The shakedown stories. How 3rd World dictators such as Hugo Chavez use alarmism to steal our tax dollars.
4) The conflict of interest stories. How so many warming alarmists, including the head of the IPCC, earn millions of dollars from alarmism.
5) Sheer incompetence stories. Copenhagen has been marked by long lines, disorganized meetings, by people forced to line up outside in the cold. These people can't even run a conference, yet they expect to manage the world's weather!
The whole thing is an expensive $215 million boondoggle.
Posted by: Bruce | December 17, 2009 10:45 AM
If the Obama administration believes they can obtain the approval of the American people to send 100 billion dollars to foreign nations to address global warming they had better stick a needle into themselves and wake up.
This proposal would lead to a bigger deficit, higher national debt and increased taxes.
This is what is an example of what is wrong inside the beltway and is an example of why the common folk have lost faith in the Democrats and President Obama.
Posted by: Pat H | December 17, 2009 9:42 AM
Simple- Obimbo will let Nacy and Harry shaft America with the bill.
Posted by: Inky | December 17, 2009 10:53 AM
JUST AS THEY SHOULD . . .
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Global Warming Talks Retreating Into Nothingness
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http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/11903
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The great socialist, liberal, progressive, left (pick your preferred label(s)) movement has run its course. Being made up of fictional fantasies one would typically find in a Disney cartoon land (corporations bad, humanity bad, nature under attack, liberals saving the day with platitudes, etc), it is no surprise this thin tissue of unrealistic, simple-minded ‘policies’ has run aground. People are not evil, being alive is not a sin against nature (we are nature’s boldest creation after all), corporations are not evil, government creates 100 problems for every one it solves and CO2 is not a pollutant.
This week the liberal heart was ripped out of Obamacare, leaving penalties for not being insured but no cost savings, no increased services and no Nirvana. The Public Option (government rationed care) is gone. A bold Senator from Connecticut did his job and represented his state over the political party’s agenda, and pulled the legislation back from the far left brink.
And now in Copenhagen the same thing is happening, as all the dire predictions of pending doom are melting away into a puddle of watered down nothingness:
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | December 17, 2009 11:08 AM
And where is the nearly bankrupt U.S. going to get this money to give to Third World countries and dictators who will not use it to battle "climate change?"
Let's see, Under Obimbo, we have trilion-dollar deficits for another three years, followed by $500 Billion+ deficits for infinity. We will have a sham health care bill that will solve nothing but only add trillions more to those deficits. We're going to get a cap and tax bill that will raise everyone's energy costs so very few will be able to heat and cool their homes and nearly all manufacturing jobs will leave the U.S. for good to Mexico, India and China. And now we're going to give untold billions that we don't have on fake science to Third World dictators who will waste it.
I guess this is the change "you can believe in."
Posted by: John D, still right, as usual | December 17, 2009 11:45 AM
Let's see here. We are going to borrow money from the Chinese to pay into a fund for third world thugs, including the country we are borrowing from. We will mandate drastic tax increases, reduce our quality of life and drive more manufacturing to 3rd world countries.
A group of 3rd world socialist countries without the basic capability to pull themselves out of the stone age will now bully the adolescent apologist who feels guilty about the success of our economic system. Chavez, Mugabe and dozens of other lying and murdering thugs have now been elevated to cult status by the idiotic ramblings of our little man-child.
At least we've managed to contain Iran and N. Korea.......
Posted by: Hans | December 17, 2009 12:36 PM
Bobbie,
How could Obama have hung out with hm, if he is not even their yet?
Posted by: martin | December 17, 2009 1:17 PM
If the Obama administration believes they can obtain the approval of the American people to send 100 billion dollars to foreign nations to address global warming they had better stick a needle into themselves and wake up.
This proposal would lead to a bigger deficit, higher national debt and increased taxes.
This is what is an example of what is wrong inside the beltway and is an example of why the common folk have lost faith in the Democrats and President Obama.
Posted by: Pat H | December 17, 2009 9:42 AM
A little reading comprehension can go a long way. The article says nothing about the US government paying the whole thing. It says with allies, public and private.
Posted by: martin | December 17, 2009 1:21 PM
Now according to Clinton..."unspecified American share of the money would come from public and private sources"
Heavy tax burdon on the American people... You've been warned.
Posted by: MAJMark | December 17, 2009 1:46 PM
Martin, even if the U.S. government ponies up $20 billion a year, that is $20 billion a year too much. The lion's share will come from the U.S., as it always seems to do.
Warren Buffet, Ted Turner, GE can pony up as much as they want and waste their money. The Obimbo shaministration has wasted enough of taxpayer's money already to last 50 lifetimes!
Posted by: John D, still right, as usual | December 17, 2009 1:59 PM
This is what Copenhagen is all about and those who support global change legislation: the end of democracy and capitalism:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/putting_our_economy_in_the_hands_of_chavez_fans
Chilling, truly chilling.
Posted by: John D, still right, as usual | December 17, 2009 2:08 PM
COPENHAGEN -- Attempting to revive climate negotiations that appear dangerously close to flat-lining, the Obama administration announced today that it would join allies in raising $100 billion by 2020 to help the world's poorest countries adapt to climate change. ~ J.T.
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Mustapha and Hillary are going to expropriate, by whatever undefined means as may be necessary, $100,000,000,000 to be turned over to the Third World despots. What will high profile liberals living in a Swamp likely to contribute?
Liberals are all about compassion, tolerance, diversity, and are extremely generous with their money. But how can we project what they will actually contribute? Well, luckily, we do have a clue. Don Fitzgerald “salutes” President Mustapha. Don Fitzgerald “salutes him for his positive step”.
You “salute” military officers and Boy Scouts if you are one of them, but how much money are we talking about here, Don Fitzgerald, when you “salute” a Marxist for just doing what a Marxist would just do naturally? Does your “salute” have any kind of implied monetary value, or is it just one of those many things that Liberals obligate themselves to do? Liberals love spending the money that they have confiscated from someone else. The hypocrisy of Liberalism knows no limits.
Posted by: Django - N Exile In/Around the 30th Parallel | December 17, 2009 8:02 PM
Dump Truck Sleeper FITZ,
"Now that is putting your money where your mouth is and, on behalf of America, I salute President Obama". Not quite. BO isn't putting a dime of HIS money where his mouth is.
Posted by: Terry | December 17, 2009 8:46 PM