COPENHAGEN -- The battle of the drafts has begun.

In one of the most significant developments to date at the U.N.-sponsored climate talks, the ad-hoc group charged with charting a new path forward released a draft text Friday morning outlining the critical questions that need to be resolved before the talks end Dec. 18.

The text authored by Michael Zammit Cutajar, the chair of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action, has boiled down a 180-page negotiation document to just over six pages.

While the new document leaves multiple options on the table for each key issue, it establishes the parameters for what both industrialized and major developing countries would do to address climate change, and outlines how richer nations could finance climate actions by poorer ones. It was released a matter of hours after small island states -- who are most vulnerable to climate change -- issued their own treaty proposal.

The Cutajar draft stipulates that the world should seek to keep global temperatures from rising beyond a ceiling of either 2.7 or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. It offers several possible targets developed countries could use for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, compared to 1990 levels: by a range of 25 to 40 percent; by 30 percent; by 40 percent; or by 45 percent. The draft also says that major developing countries should cut their carbon output by between 15 and 30 percent in the same period, compared to business as usual.

The current climate targets outlined by both industrialized and major emerging economies fall short of those goals.

The draft also calls on rich nations to provide fast-start funding over the next three years for developing countries to cope with climate change, but doesn't specify an amount.

For days, negotiators have struggled with a sprawling text that has provided little guidance for delegates as they attempt to hash out their differences. Artur Runge-Metzger, who heads international climate negotiations on behalf of the European Commission, said in an interview just before the draft was issued that it would show "where the compromise can lie" in the talks.

Jake Schmidt, who directs international climate policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the new proposal is "focused, it's short and it targets the key decisions that key governments will have to decide."

Now a whole new round of lobbying will begin: the conference's Danish host may unveil their own revised proposal Saturday.

In the meantime, the 43 small island states issued their own plan for a legal treaty early Friday, which includes mandatory emission cuts for both developed and major developing countries and an increased temperature target of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

Keya Chatterjee, the U.S. director for the World Wildlife Fund climate change program, said Cutajar has successfully "taken the temperature" of delegates to the U.N. talks, but now these negotiators need to show political will push for the most ambitious aspects of his proposal.

"Where there are two options, they need to pick the better option," she said, adding that the small islands' treaty proposal can also guide delegates because it reflects the current scientific findings on global warming. "It's nice to see the most vulnerable countries come forward with a clear vision for the future."

Some activists criticized the Cutajar proposal Friday, on the grounds that -- despite the call for fast-start funding -- the document did not spell out details on what sort of long-term financing would be provided to help poor countries cope with climate change.

"The center piece of the deal being proposed today gives no guarantee that the deal in Copenhagen will deliver action," said Antonio Hill, Oxfam International's senior climate advisor. "With millions of people already suffering from flash floods and withering droughts, we need a new legal deal, not more deliberation and delay."

But Yvo de Boer, who is running the talks as the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change's executive secretary, said the document should be seen as "a framework to address the big-ticket issues" rather than one that would provide the final answers.

He also welcomed the European Union's announcement Friday that it would provide $7.2 billion euros in short-term financing to developing countries.

The move "will, I think, be a huge encouragement to the process," De Boer said. "We will then have to see what other rich countries put on the table to match that sum."

VIEW PHOTO GALLERY

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/11/AR2009121101188.html