NGOs and developing nations are in an uproar after a Danish draft agreement showing preference to wealthy countries and abandoning the Kyoto protocol was leaked. Reportage enviro Danish Correspondent, Jeppe Funder, reports from COP15.

Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen feeling the heat at COP15. Image: Courtesy of Image.net/Getty Images

British newspaper, The Guardian, has published a document claiming to outline Danish Government plans for a global climate agreement. The document has sparked outrage at the Bella Center, as it is alleged to favour rich countries.

The leaked document from the Danish Government is causing havoc at the COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen. The document is said to have been circulating as a draft paper for a global agreement in the past weeks.

One section of the document suggests that some of the Kyoto protocol’s legally binding principals be replaced with ‘political agreements’. This has been interpreted as a huge advantage for industrialised nations.

This is an idea which has not gone down well with the NGOs at COP15.

“It has sparked massive rage,” head of the World Wildlife Foundations climate programme John Nordbo told Danish news-site Berlingske.dk.

Oxfam climate advisor Antonio Hill told the American political journal Politico that “The poor nations are in danger of getting squished like ants in a room full of elephants.”

Reactions from the developing countries are no better. At a press conference inside the COP15 venue, Sudan’s Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, spokesperson for more than 130 developing nations in the G77 told reporters that the document could severely undermine the negotiations.

“We cannot afford failure in Copenhagen. We must find a way to a fair agreement, but we will not sign an unfair agreement that condemns 80 per cent of the world population to suffering and injustice,” he said.

The Danish Ministry for Climate and Energy issued a press release stating that the document ‘in no way’ represents Denmark’s draft for a new climate protocol.

In a statement sent out to journalists at COP15, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer stated, “this was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations.”