Major News for the Copenhagen UNFCCC Summit

The White House released a statement an hour or so ago saying that Pres. Obama will be in Copenhagen on the final day of the meetings, December 18th, rather than on the 9th. This is hugely significant in itself. Further, this is the major part of the statement:

This week, the President discussed the status of the negotiations with Prime Minister Rudd, Chancellor Merkel, President Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Brown and concluded that there appears to be an emerging consensus that a core element of the Copenhagen accord should be to mobilize $10 billion a year by 2012 to support adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable and least developed countries that could be destabilized by the impacts of climate change. The United States will pay its fair share of that amount and other countries will make substantial commitments as well. In Copenhagen, we also need to address the need for financing in the longer term to support adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. Providing this assistance is not only a humanitarian imperative – it’s an investment in our common security, as no climate change accord can succeed if it does not help all countries reduce their emissions. [my highlighting]

One of the central obstacles has been financing for adaptation and mitigation efforts in the most vulnerable countries (vulnerable most often because poor). All of a sudden, we have a real possibility of a major agreement coming out of Copenhagen. It's about time.