Article published on the 2009-12-18

Following overnight negotiations and a morning session with US President Barack Obama at the Copenhagen Climate Change summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged emerging economies like China and India to break the deadlock and agree to indepdendent verification of their progress towards greenhouse gas commitments.

Sarkozy said there was “lots of tension” during negotiations, although he added that, “things are moving a little”. He said that there must be independent verification of how emerging economies like China and India are living up to their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

He described Europe as “perfectly united” with Africa and the US sharing a similar position.

However he added that there was work to be done on firming up commitments for environmental action and finance to developing countries.