Copenhagen Climate Accord Now Accepted By Nine Nations, UN Says

By Alex Morales

Australia, France and Canada are among nine countries that have told the United Nations they’ll accept the Copenhagen Accord, the non-binding climate-change agreement brokered last month, the UN said.

With 12 days before more than 190 nations must say whether they accept the deal and detail pledges to cut emissions blamed for global warming, nine countries have said they’ll sign up while one, Cuba, has rejected it, a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change spokesman said today in an e-mailed reply.

The accord was brokered on Dec. 18 by U.S. President Barack Obama, China Premier Wen Jiabao, South Africa President Jacob Zuma, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Under the deal, countries will aim to keep the global rise in temperatures since industrialization in the 1800s to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Turkey, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Ghana and the Maldives have notified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change they’ll accept the deal, the spokesman said. Countries have until Jan. 31 to sign the accord and list in an appendix the emissions-reductions targets and actions they’ll commit to.

The U.S., Brazil, China, India and South Africa have yet to make formal submissions to the UN indicating they’ll sign up to the Copenhagen Accord, according to the UN e-mail. The 27-nation European Union, Ethiopia and Grenada were among those that indicated support for the deal in Copenhagen.