Barack Obama pushes for climate change deal between G8 and developing countries

Mini-summit to lay groundwork for post-Kyoto meeting at Copenhagen but chance of breakthrough is slim
Patrick Wintour and Larry Elliott in L'Aquila
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 July 2009 18.10 BST

The US president, Barack Obama, is to bring together the G8 industrialised nations and the five leading developing countries for a climate change mini-summit, but a breakthrough deal is not expected.
Obama is hoping he can bring the two sides closer together so there is a clear understanding of the concessions needed at December's Copenhagen summit, at which a successor to the Kyoto treaty is to be thrashed out.
The deal will have to include an admission that developing nations such as India and China must slow the pace in the increase of their carbon emissions.
The meeting, at L'Aquila, in Italy, is under the umbrella of the major economies forum and is being jointly chaired by Obama and the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
Developing nations are not expected to sign up to specific carbon reduction targets at the meeting, but British sources are hoping the US will sign for the first time to a target of preventing temperatures rising by more than 2C on pre-industrial levels.
The Americans have been briefing that they do not see the G8 as the centrepiece of progress on climate change, and in the short term it is important to strike a deal to reduce US carbon emissions in Congress.
Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman, told reporters the Congress bill is "going to be the true measure of things".
Developing nations are not going to sign up to specific commitments until they are sure the developed nations first agree to specific interim targets for 2020 and transfer large sums to help them grow using green technology.
Britain is the first country to put a specific sum on how much needs to be transferred on green technology, using a mix of public and private sources.
The US partly refused to sign the Kyoto treaty on the basis that China was refusing to contribute, and Obama will have to work his charms with both China and the US Congress to ensure there is no repetition of this deadlock at Copenhagen.