Meeting footprint likely to worsen global warming

Copenhagen: It is being hyped as the summit that will save the planet.

But, according to critics, the climate change talks are more likely to cost the earth.

Researchers estimated that the bill for the 12-day jamboree will top £130 million (Dh793 million) — and will generate as much greenhouse gas as an entire African country.

More than 15,000 delegates and 45,000 green activists are due to descend on the Danish capital over the next two weeks in a meeting described by British economist Lord Stern as "the most important since the Second World War".

They will be joined by at least 5,000 journalists — including 35 from the BBC alone — and 100 world leaders, including Gordon Brown and Barack Obama.

The UN has confirmed flights, rail and bus travel, food and energy from the conference will generate at least 41,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

That's more greenhouse gas than produced by Malawi, Afghanistan or Sierra Leone over the same period. The Danish government says it will offset emissions by planting trees or investing in green projects.

The conference aims to set targets for cutting global greenhouse gas emissions from farming, industry and transport.

The aim is to keep the rise in world temperatures to within 2 degrees celsius by the end of the century.

Climate scientists believe a 40 per cent cut on 1990 levels of emissions is needed by 2020 — rising to an 80 per cent cut by 2050.

Western nations will also be asked to pay into a fund worth £100 billion a year to help developing countries protect against rising sea levels, droughts and floods.

President Obama and the Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen have conceded the conference will not produce a legally binding treaty.