Climate talks advance amid protests

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COPENHAGEN, Dec 12 (AP): Environment ministers from around the world were arriving in Copenhagen Saturday to ramp up pressure on climate negotiators working on a pact to curb global warming, as protesters gathered to demand that the world's leaders take strong action. The ministers will have nearly a week of intense public and private talks before more than 100 heads of state and government come to the Danish capital at the end of next week.
On the chilly streets outside the conference center, police assigned extra squads to watch thousands of protesters gathering for a march to demand that leaders act now to fight climate change. "All week we have heard a string of excuses from northern countries to make adequate reparations for the ecological crisis that they have caused," said Lidy Nacpil, of the Jubilee South Coalition. "We are taking to the streets to demand that the ecological debt is repaid to the people of the South," she said in a statement.
Pledges made to cut heat-trapping greenhouse emissions are far below what scientists say is needed to keep global temperatures from rising to potentially catastrophic levels.