GENEVA - Ahead of the much awaited United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, experts from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have expressed hope that the meet will be successful, despite continuing differences among various countries.

The conference is slated from Dec 7-18.

Interacting with a group of visiting Indian journalists at the office of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) here through video conferencing, a senior official of the UNFCCC secretariat in Bonn said they were hopeful of the success of the Copenhagen conference - where the parties to the UNFCCC will meet to adopt a new roadmap for mitigating climate change beyond 2012.

“We feel that talks at Copenhagen will not fail. At the climate change conference at Bali in 2007, countries have promised to make the Copenhagen summit a success,” the UNFCCC official, who did not wish to be named, said.

Till now, not a single country has refused to fulfil its commitment to mitigating the threat of global climate change, he added.

However, he rued that negotiations are not moving fast. “Governments and politicians need to move fast ahead of the summit to come to conclusions on various conflicting issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, sources at the UNFCCC said that there is no contingency plan if the Copenhagen summit fails.

“We have less time. Just few years in hand to control climate change, or else we will lose the battle,” the official said.

The Copenhagen summit holds great significance as the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming expires 2012.

As per UNFCCC, the four political pre-requisites to achieve success in Copenhagen are clarity on targets to mitigate six major greenhouse gases by industrialised countries.

There should be also clarity on nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries; clarity on how to generate support for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries and clarity on the governance structures to manage the generated support.

Ahead of Copenhagen, the current status of negotiations among various countries on reduction of green houses gases is between 15 to 21 percent. If India is demanding reduction of green house gases up to 79.2 percent, then European Union seeks 30 percent and China 40 percent.

“However, there is still lack of progress amongst various countries and much work still needs to be done,” said UNFCCC sources.

As far as the question of what India hopes to get out of the Copenhagen summit, experts said that the country’s issues like energy security and jobs would be addressed.

“India imports around 70 percent of its oil, and this will go up to 95 percent in 2030, unless patterns of access to energy change dramatically. India could generate 900,000 jobs in the area of biogas by 2025 and 100,000 jobs in solar photovoltaic sector by 2020,” said the official.

“India can be a major player in this new economy boom,” he added.

Official representatives from 170 countries are expected to be in the Copenhagen summit.

According to experts, the impact on climate change will be rise in temperature by 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius across the globe by 2100.

There will be also rise in floods and droughts, leading to food and drinking water scarcity. Developing countries will be worst sufferers from climate change as they have limited resources to cope with the natural calamities.