US president Barack Obama said today climate talks in Copenhagen next month should fix a new deal which has "immediate operational effect", even if an original goal of a legally binding pact is out of reach.
Mr Obama's remarks came after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, who has pushed for a strong outcome at Copenhagen and refused to back a proposal to rekindle stalled negotiations by aiming for a scaled-down political deal.
Together the United States and China account for 40 per cent of world emissions, so their support is vital to any agreement.
"Our aim there . . . is not a partial accord or a political declaration but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations and one that has immediate operational effect," Mr Obama said of the Copenhagen talks.
Climate talks host Denmark said today it expected Washington to pledge deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to help rescue a deal at a December summit even though a full UN treaty is out of reach.
Prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen welcomed US Mr Obama's promise after a US-China summit in Beijing that a Copenhagen deal would be one that "covers all of the issues
. . . and has immediate operational effect".
Mr Rasmussen won backing from Mr Obama and other leaders at an Asia Pacific summit on Sunday after he outlined his proposal to agree core issues such as cuts in emissions and cash to help poor nations in Copenhagen while delaying a binding legal text.
"The American president endorsed our approach, implying that all developed countries will need to bring strong reduction targets to the negotiating table in Copenhagen," he told about 40 environment ministers meeting in the Danish capital.
The international community had set a December deadline to agree a framework to tackle global warming from 2013, but a rift has opened between developed and developing nations over who should cut emissions, by how much, and who should pay for it.
Mr Rasmussen, in a last-ditch bid to dispel growing gloom about the talks he will host from December 7th-18th, has proposed a delay in a legally binding pact until 2010 or later and aim for a political deal first.
Mr Obama, who advocates strong action on climate change but is struggling to get legislation mandating domestic action through the US Congress, backed that plan.
But his call today for a wide-ranging agreement that would take effect immediately suggests he is keen to walk away from the talks with more than just a piece of paper.
China has said only that it is "studying" the proposal. Beijing has invested large amounts of diplomatic capital in reaching a new deal. Mr Hu earlier this year unveiled the country's first pledge to curb carbon emissions at a UN summit.
After his talks with Mr Obama in Beijing today, Mr Hu said the two sides had committed to working more closely on tackling global warming and called for a "positive outcome" from the talks, although experts admit that time has essentially run out to fix a legal deal.
Mr Hu emphasised a long-standing global agreement that states countries have a shared responsibility for tackling warming but should take on different levels of commitment depending on their economic and social situation.
Mr Obama said the world's top two carbon emitters had committed to take "significant" action to mitigate their output of carbon dioxide, and agreed to cooperate in areas including renewable energy, cleaner coal and electric vehicles.
Reuters