Transparency is key to any agreement that the US will accept, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton told reporters on Thursday morning in a press briefing. Felix von Geyer reports on the detail from Copenhagen

Having arrived only hours before, Hillary Clinton had been briefed on the state of negotiations and declared to the media that: “We are at a critical juncture.”

“All countries need to reach for common ground,” she said, calling for decisive national actions, an international accord, and stating that assistance would be made available for adaptation and deforestation.

Clinton underscored the US’s emissions reductions pledge “in the range of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020,” which would be succeeded by 30% below 2005 by 2025; 42% by 2030 and over 80% by 2050, she said.

Moreover, she called for generous financial support to help mitigation efforts in developing countries: $10bn by 2012 rising to $100bn a year by 2020, she said.

One of UN executive secretary Yvo de Boer’s three clarities is the need for financing for prompt start actions such as a $10bn fund.

This money would come from a variety of private sources, bilateral and multilateral sources for forestry and adaptation.

But this must be a COMMON effort, Clinton stressed.

To this end, she recalled a Chinese proverb. “When in a common boat you have to cross the river peacefully,” she said, stressing the need to engage “constructively and creatively.”

The world can no longer be “us versus them” Clinton said, and we must “all raise our oars and row together,” she continued.

However, Clinton warned that this was heavily contingent on commitments from developing countries. “We need a new commitment,” she said, stressing that these would be according to countries’ differentiated responsibilities.

Moreover, she stressed that there were several interlocking pieces to this new commitment, and a key piece is transparency.

Pressed as to what standards she would be seeking, she replied: “There are numerous approaches to transparency which are credible and acceptable.”

In an earlier press conference, the African Group of countries was asked whether the issue of measurement, verification and reporting (MRV) was seriously hindering the negotiations. They replied: “Developing countries are willing to submit … if it is funded by the developed world and using agreed MRV standards. We are also willing to use our own national standards.”



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