Tuvalu cites Aussie pressure on climate

Australia has been lobbying Tuvalu to drop its demand that global warming
temperature rises be limited to 1.5 degrees, the nation's Prime Minister Apisai
Ielemia says.
The tiny Pacific island nation is only five metres above sea level at its highest
point, making it especially vulnerable to any future rise in sea levels that may be
caused by global warming.
Mr Ielemia, who is in Copenhagen for global climate change talks, said he had
received phone calls from members of Australia's delegation there.
"They were just trying very diplomatically to talk me out (of my views), to arrange
a meeting and probably to water me down," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
"I won't go less than 1.5. I want nothing less than a legally-binding agreement ...
to be signed here in Copenhagen."
Mr Ielemia warned there would be disastrous consequences if a deal to that effect
wasn't done.
"To go over that limit, it will be a graveyard for all the living things in Tuvalu,"
he said.
Meanwhile, Australia has signed up to a deal to protect forests in neighbouring
countries - one of the first agreements reached at the ailing Copenhagen summit.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Australia would provide $A120 million over three
years for the $US3.5 billion ($A3.9 billion) fund.
The money will be used from next year to protect forests in countries like Indonesia
and Papua New Guinean from being logged, to save greenhouse gas emissions.
But despite the progress on forests the PM was downcast about progress at the
landmark UN climate summit, which is supposed to seal a deal on global warming on
Friday.
"It's proceeding at a snails' pace right now," Mr Rudd told reporters from a
Copenhagen hotel on Wednesday evening.
"Today very little progress has been made."
Mr Rudd hinted some countries were frustrating the process, and heated language had
been used in meetings.
"For such an agreement to be reached, we need to see every country pull its weight,
developed countries and developing countries."
He refused to name names for diplomatic reasons.
"That does not mean the discussions which occurred internally are necessarily
couched in diplomatic language.
"Large international conferences like this are full of more argy bargy than your
average ALP national conference on steroids."
Some African nations have proposed a solution to the row over long-term financing
for poor countries, suggesting $US50 billion ($A55 billion) a year by 2015 and
$US100 billion ($A110.5 billion) by 2020.
Mr Rudd said the proposal, made by Ethiopia, was constructive but he wouldn't
necessarily sign up to all the elements of it.
Australia has not said what it would contribute to a long-term fund.
The short-term forests fund is expected to come out of a larger financing package
for the developing world.