COP15 Day 11: Leak says proposals mean 3 C of warming

Editor’s note: Greenbang will be providing daily dispatches and ongoing updates from the climate change talks in Copenhagen, and is covering the conference virtually to keep our carbon footprint low.

Following are developments from today’s events at the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen:

• 350.org reports breaking news that a leaked UN document acknowledges that the commitments currently being made at the climate conference commit the planet to a temperature rise of at least 3 degrees C.
• Hobbled negotiations got back on track today as delegates agreed to pursue two-track talks that address continuation of the Kyoto Protocol as well as a new global climate treaty. Developing nations had urged continued application of the Kyoto treaty, while wealthy countries appeared to be ready to let the previous climate pact die.
• Speaking in Copenhagen today, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, “Scientific truths know no boundaries of ideology or politics … And I say to this conference:  informed by science, moved by conscience, inspired by common purpose we, the leaders of this fragile world, must affirm: we will not condemn millions to injustice without remedy, to sorrow without hope, to deprivation  without end.”
• 350.org reports on Twitter that drafting groups are “working in2 the night 2 complete text” for COP15 tomorrow.
• China has rejected US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s call that it incorporate its stated pledge to reduce carbon intensity into the Copenhagen deal. Without that commitment, Clinton said, the US would not provide funds to help developing countries deal with climate change.
• Monsanto has won the Angry Mermaid’s award for worst corporate climate lobbyist in Copenhagen. The agricultural giant was nominated, awards organisers said, for “promoting its genetically modified (GM) crops as a solution to climate change and pushing for its crops to be used as biofuels. The expansion of GM soy in Latin America is contributing to major deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.” Shell earned second place while third place went to the American Petroleum Institute.