Copenhagen Climate "Deal"

Five countries have reached a non-binding agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit, but leaders from developing countries have reacted angrily to the deal.

Five countries, including the US and China, forged the agreement on Friday following a day of frenzied talks at the 193-nation global warming summit in Denmark.

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Barack Obama, the US president, hailed the agreement as meaningful and said it would provide the framework for future talks. But he also acknowledged that it did not go far enough.

"Today we have made a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen," he said.

"For the first time in history, all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change.

"This progress did not come easily and we know this progress alone is not enough ... We've come a long way but we have much further to go."

'Nationalist self-interests'

Obama said the US, China, Brazil, India and South Africa had agreed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius to help meet their new objective

The deal calls for the participating countries to list specific actions they have taken to control emissions and their commitments to achieve deeper reductions.

The agreement also includes a commitment by the countries to give developing nations $100bn dollars in assistance from 2020 to help them deal with climate change.

The deal includes some progress in helping developing nations cope with climate change, but it falls short of committing any nation to pollution reductions.

But many countries are angry they were excluded from the negotiations and are debating whether or not to approve the deal.

Article continues: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/12/20091218224724782996.html