Objections from African Nations Bring Climate Talks to Standstill

Negotiations at the climate summit in Copenhagen broke down Monday when a group of African nations accused wealthier countries of trying to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, The Guardian reports. Members of the Group of 77, a loose coalition of developing countries that includes much of Africa, the Middle East and China, spoke out against what they called an effort to sideline poor countries and walk away from the only binding agreement on carbon emissions.

Talks were suspended for two hours Monday, but continued informally and were expected to resume later in the day. Delegates said the episode increased their fears that no agreement would be reached by the summit's conclusion on Friday.

The conflict over Kyoto began last week when a proposal dubbed the "Danish Text" was leaked to The Guardian. It proposed shifting the authority behind climate regulation from the United Nations to the more financially minded World Bank. The document suggested reversing the core principle of Kyoto: that rich countries accept the deepest emission cuts as "payback" for the years they have done most of the emitting.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown decided to fly to Copenhagen two days earlier than he had planned, though his spokesman said it had nothing to do with the conflict that erupted Monday.