Forex: COP15: Obama Meets With Chinese In Final Push To Salvage Climate Deal

With just hours left at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and an agreement on curbing global emissions "hanging in the balance," U.S. President Barack Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in an attempt to salvage a deal.

The White House said the two leaders "made progress" in a "constructive" discussion on topics raised by Obama in his speech to delegates from 192 nations in the Bella Center's plenary hall earlier in the day.

Asked if the two had achieved a breakthrough, the administration official said that talks produced a "step forward" and that Obama and Wen have urged negotiators to get together one-on-one after the meeting "to see if an agreement can be reached."

However, conflicting reports out of Copenhagen said that China and India have walked out of negotiations, with the support of Brazil.

Emerging economies are said to be furious over the inclusion of an "umbrella clause" requiring China and India to indicate when their greenhouse gas emissions would peak and submit to international monitoring of their emissions.

For its part, the U.S. contingent was upset that Wen skipped a high-level meeting earlier in the day with heads of state from twenty countries, sending his vice foreign minister instead.

A number of major roadblocks to an agreement were smoothed over in recent days, particularly on the thorny issue of who will fund a move to cleaner technologies for poorer nations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Thursday that the U.S. would join other nations in raising $100 billion per year by 2020 to help poor nations deal with the impacts of climate change.

The meeting between Obama and Wen took place moments after Obama addressed a plenary session of the conference, saying that the U.S. intends to meet its responsibility to address climate change.

The president stressed that all major economies must put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions, and begin to turn the corner on climate change. "I'm confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020, and by more than 80 percent by 2050 in line with final legislation," said Obama.

"There are those developing countries that want aid with no strings attached, and no obligations with respect to transparency," Obama said, alluding to the Chinese. "The time for talk is over. This is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward, continue to refine it and build upon its foundation."

Wen also addressed the morning session, talking about the Chinese commitment to curbing emissions.

"This is a voluntary action China has taken in the light of its national circumstances. We have not attached any condition to the target, nor have we linked it to the target of any other country. We will honor our word with real action," Wen said. "Whatever outcome this conference may produce, we will be fully committed to achieving and even exceeding the target."