Climate talks stalled, clashes erupt

CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent COPENHAGEN

Danish police fired pepper spray and beat protesters with batons outside the U.N. climate conference today, as disputes inside left major issues unresolved just two days before world leaders hope to sign a historic agreement to fight global warming. With the talks clearly deadlocked, Connie Hedegaard, former Danish climate minister, resigned from the conference presidency to allow her boss, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen to preside as world leaders from 115 n a t i o n s s t reamed i n to Copenhagen. She was to continue overseeing the closed-door negotiations. Hundreds of protesters were trying to disrupt the 193-nation conference, the latest action in days of demonstrations to demand "climate justice" firm action to combat global warming. Police said 230 protesters were detained. Inside the cavernous Bella Center convention hall, negotiators dealing with core issues debated until just before dawn without setting new goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or for financing poorer countries' efforts to cope with coming climate change, key elements of any deal. "I regret to report we have been unable to reach agreement," John Ashe of Antigua, chairman of one negotiating group, reported to conference this morning. In those overnight talks, the American delegation apparently objected to a proposed text it felt might bind the United States prematurely to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, before the U.S. Congress acts on the required legislation. U.S. envoys insisted, for example, on replacing the word "shall" with the conditional "should." "A lot of things are in play," said Fred Krupp of the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund. "This is the normal rhythm of international negotiations." Hundreds of protesters marched on the suburban Bella Center, where lines of Danish riot police waited in protective cordons. Some demonstrators said they wanted to take over the global conference and turn it into a "people's assembly," and as they approached police lines they were hit with pepper spray