Officials gloomy over hopes of climate deal

Climate change delegates were today privately admitting hope was running out for a comprehensive deal today, even as world leaders began flooding into Copenhagen.

With only one day left, a Danish official said the negotiations between rich and poor countries were deadlocked.

They said the Danish hosts of the UN conference had not given up although it appeared unlikely that their ambitious plan for the conference would be fulfilled.

“As it looks now, we will not get the deal that we had hoped for,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

Denmark started the two-week UN conference – the largest and most important meeting on climate change in history – hoping to crafting a comprehensive framework to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming and provide funds for poor countries to deal with climate change.

They wanted to get agreement on all the main elements so that a treaty could be signed next year.

But so far the talks have been marked by sharp disagreements between China and the United States – the world’s top carbon polluters – and a yawning chasm between rich and poor nations over what should be done.

Still unresolved are the questions of emissions targets for industrial countries, billions of dollars a year in funding for poor countries to contend with global warming, and verifying the actions of emerging powers like China and India to ensure that promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are kept.

European officials have called for a breakthrough in the final stretch of the conference, which is set to end tomorrow.

“We are in a crisis of the negotiation. We have to overcome the blockage in the discussion and negotiations,” German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said. “We still have time: 36 or 48 hours. We need the political will to overcome this.”

Leaders arriving today included Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.