Hopenhagen?

On Saturday, negotiations reached an impasse at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen as Environment ministers rejected a draft proposal which did not commit the developing world to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and about 800 of almost 100,000 demonstrators were arrested.



On Sunday, delegates held informal talks during a one-day break from negotiations, while Danish police released hundreds of the detained activists, and stood accused of overreacting to Saturday's sporadic street violence.

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Divisions between developing and developed nations over emissions cuts and cash for climate adaptation are major stumbling blocks. So is distrust between the United States and China. Yet so many world leaders are planning to attend the summit that insiders say there is bound to be some agreement.

Audio: PRI's Living On Earth, Host: Steve Curwood.

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On Monday, Danish host minister Ms Connie Hedegaard, the president of the UN climate summit. urged delegates to "get to work" after protests from developing nations forced a suspension of several hours.

Talks resumed later after their key demand - separate talks on the Kyoto Protocol - was met. But earlier optismism about agreement has dimished and some delegates spoke forlornly of the vast amount of negotiating left to be done before the summit concludes.

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Opposition forces also descended on Copenhagen hoping to sabotage any agreement on global warming.

Armed with "new evidence," climate change deniers stoked debate in the media was about thousands of leaked emails from scientists at one British university which suggest data was fudged.

New York Times environmental reporter Andrew Revkin not only wrote about the emails, but was in fact the subject of some of them.

Audio: WNYC's On The Media Host: Bob Garfield.