British PM warns of failure but brings hope

According to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the first sign of progress in the negotiations could be seen Wednesday with new proposals for climate change from African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi.
Rie Jerichow - 16/12/2009 - As the first world leader, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (photo above) arrived Tuesday in Copenhagen two days ahead of schedule, in order to help broker discussions on who should pay to tackle global warming.

A failure at the summit would have serious consequences. If temperatures rise too far, the world economy would suffer an unprecedented "catastrophe", he said, according to British daily The Telegraph.

"If we do not act to tackle climate change, the costs to our standard of living will be huge - a reduction in our national income of up to 20 percent, an economic catastrophe equivalent in this century to the impact of two world wars and the great depression in the last," he said, according to the newspaper.

However, the first sign of progress could come on Wednesday with Ethiopia's prime minister and African Union climate negotiator, Meles Zenawi, expected to announce new proposals for climate change, The Guardian reports.

Meles met Brown in London on Tuesday. According to The Guardian, Brown said that Meles's proposals were an important step forward and his ideas were a "framework within which developed and developing countries can work together".

Da UNFCCC