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By Neil Marks in CopenhagenUnited Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer has spread further uncertainty that the Copenhagen summit would produce a new legally binding agreement to make the planet cooler.“Nobody knows what the outcome of this conference will be,” said de Boer at a midday news conference at the Bella Centre.This follows Wednesday’s quandary when the small island state of Tuvalu was handed a suspension of the negotiations it demanded over a quarrel among developing countries.Several small island states and poor countries in Africa supported Tuvalu in calling for parties in Copenhagen to sign a new legally-binding protocol under the convention to complement an amended Kyoto Protocol, and to discuss this in a contact group.However, India and China, together with Saudi Arabia,Willson Contreras Cubs Jersey, Venezuela, Algeria, Kuwait, Oman and Nigeria opposed the establishment of a contact group, saying the focus should remain on the adoption of a new protocol.The two-week meeting, the fifteenth Conference of the 193 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the fifth meeting of the 189 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, is the culmination of a process set in motion in Bali, Indonesia, where Parties to the UNFCCC agreed to conclude negotiations on a new global deal in Denmark in 2009.  The UN climate chief insisted that Kyoto is the only protocol that “we have to act on climate change and that the Protocol “must and will remain.”Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments.The ultimate objective is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.The US has not signed on to the Kyoto protocol. President Barack Obama has said the US government would offer a provisional 17 percent emission cut from 2005 levels by 2020,James Shields White Sox Jersey, but developing nations say this is not tough enough.The United Nations and the Danish government are keen on a new climate deal being struck in Copenhagen.So de Boer stayed clear of indications of a protracted stalemate in the talks, saying that after three days of negotiations parties are now “getting down to work” after the initial days of “nervousness.”Negotiators are under further pressure to come up with some decisions as de Boer announced that an increasing number of ministers will begin arriving in the Danish capital from tomorrow.As a result, President of the conference of parties, Connie Hedegaard, will take stock of the progress so the Ministers could have a clear set of texts and reports “so they could have a solid foundation for climate action,Mike Lowell Red Sox Jersey,” said de Boer.As it stands, de Boer said the challenge for the negotiators is getting the text to be concise but unambiguous.“Whatever comes out of this conference has to be crystal clear and guard against multiple interpretations,” said de Boer.According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an aggregate emission reduction by industrialised countries of between minus 25% and 40% over 1990 levels would be required by 2020 in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change,Ozzie Guillen White Sox Jersey, with global emissions falling by at least 50% by 2050. Even under this scenario, there would be only a 50% chance of avoiding the most catastrophic consequences. However,Nomar Garciaparra Red Sox Jersey, despite the pessimism, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was optimistic the conference would produce an agreement.“We will get an agreement – and, I believe, that the agreement will be signed by all U.N. member states, which is historic,” Ban said in an interview in the Danish daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende.The United Nations set a deadline for the Copenhagen talks to yield a legally binding and tougher agreement to expand or replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.But negotiations, launched in 2007, became bogged down and the talks are likely to end with a weaker political declaration. A legally binding treaty text might agreed next year.Regarding a fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change, Todd Stern,Sammy Sosa Cubs Jersey, President Barack Obama’s climate change envoy, expressed support for a UN call for a US$10 billion fund to be provided internationally from 2010 to 2012 for short-term adaptation in vulnerable countries.Sweden yesterday said it will give 800 million euro (US$1.2 billion) to help developing nations fight climate change.