http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-race-for-a-deal From dinner to desperation: The 24-hour race for a deal in Copenhagen
The Copenhagen climate change summit had been meticulously planned to produce a streamlined agreement. Instead, it turned into an epic struggle over the shape of a future world economic order
Suzanne Goldenberg and Allegra Stratton in Copenhagen
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 18.12 GMT
The world leaders invited to dine by Queen Margrethe supped on turkey and mushy peas, and were serenaded by the Danish Royal Life Guards bands playing George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun.
But the bands also played Here's That Rainy Day - which may in the end prove more apt. By 10pm on Thursday night, leaders from about two dozen of the world's biggest economies had left the dinner to return to the hangar-like convention centre, trying to strike the deal on climate change that their negotiators had been chasing unsuccessfully for nearly two weeks.
It was not what any of them had planned. The Copenhagen climate change summit had been meticulously planned by the Danish hosts to produce a streamlined agreement. By the time the prime ministers and presidents began arriving, negotiators - led by a select group from the major economies - were supposed to have produced a draft agreement. All the leaders were meant to do was give their assent.
Instead, leaders walked into an epic struggle over the shape of a future world economic order. Would rapidly emerging economies like China see their growth stunted by controls on greenhouse gas emissions? Would African countries and low-lying states who say they face annihilation if the warming of the atmosphere exceeds 2C get the technology and financial assistance they need to safeguard their future?
…