(Thumbnail image: Flickr/Chuck Olsen)

World leaders have just two days left to draft a global agreement on emissions policies at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

We’re taking a look at perspectives from France24, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Current.

First, France24 says the two big issues at the summit are carbon emissions reduction and money. Developing economies, like China and India, are asking for funding to help offset the effects of climate change. But richer countries that would foot the bill to help are also asking for a few things in return.

“They want measurability, recordability and verifiability, MRV, and now developing and emerging economies are worried that MRV would constitute an intrusion and some are even saying a colonialistic attitude, so that’s another sticking point, the question of verifying how the money is spent.”

Delegates from several African nations say they’re against any proposal that would eliminate the Kyoto Protocol. That’s legislation that holds richer countries to demonstrated emissions standards under an international framework. The Guardian’s John Vidal explains.

“This is an issue which is basically a deal breaker, it’s not a deal maker. Africa is absolutely determined not to sign up for a deal that would undermine the only legal agreement, which exists to force the rich countries to cut their emissions.  That is the bottom line.”

The New York Times environmental reporter Andrew Revkin held a Webcast to answer reader questions about the Copenhagen Conference. Here’s his response to one question about whether any reforms on paper will actually result in action by world governments.

“The 1997 Kyoto protocol bound a certain number of countries to curb emissions, but it turned out that it was pretty hard to do that all on your own soil in Europe and Japan, so quite often they would buy offsets, what are called offsets, and it’s still unclear how well they’re going to meet their targets when those deadlines are hit in a couple of years.”

The conference itself is meant to unite all attending nations in an open forum for debate, but journalist Naomi Klein tells Current's Green Channel the situation is all but inaccessible for delegates from developing countries.

“In the case of this negotiation there is such a pressure to have a deal at any cost, and have a deal that is acceptable to the United States, that there have been many, many more closed door meetings of powerful, rich states with the goal of coming up with a consensus amongst themselves that is very, very difficult for the developing countries to refuse.”

So what do you think? Will anything meaningful come out of the Copenhagen Climate Conference? And will all of the countries get a say in the end?

Writer: Kelsey Proud

Producer: Jennifer Herseim