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Reinfeldt: pace of climate talks 'too slow'

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Reinfeldt: pace of climate talks 'too slow'

Speaking at a United Nations climate summit on Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said negotiations on a new global warming deal were moving far too slowly.

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"We are only 76 days from the Copenhagen meeting, but the negotiations are going far too slow and they are still lacking real progress. We are close to a deadlock," he told leaders of some 100 nations attending the gathering.

"Our job is to break the deadlock," he added, urging his peers to "give clear political guidance to the negotiating process."

The mid-December meeting in the Danish capital aims to set down action for curbing heat-trapping carbon emissions beyond 2012, when the current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol run out.

"Frankly, there is no other option than a successful outcome in Copenhagen. Action is long overdue," said Reinfeldt said, whose country currently chairs the European Union.

"For every day that goes without us taking steps, things will get worse, for us all."

Following his speech, Reinfeldt told members of the Swedish press he was disappointed by remarks made at the summit by US president Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao.

According to Reinfeldt, the speeches by leaders of the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases lacked concrete suggestions for how to combat climate change, reports Sveriges Radio (SR).

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