Reporting from Copenhagen - Overnight gloom at international climate negotiations here has given way to cautious afternoon optimism, with delegates and observers expressing hope today that world leaders are moving toward clearing several key roadblocks to a new agreement to limit greenhouse gases.
Two moves revived the talks, which appeared this morning to be dangerously close to flat-lining.
The Obama administration announced that it would join allies in raising $100 billion by 2020 to help the world's poorest countries adapt to climate change, a number that stunned many environmentalists with its size -- and which appears to meet the top demand of China, whose stalemate with the United States had bogged down the negotiations.
In response, China signaled it was moving toward satisfying the top American demand: that developing nations such as China and India will limit their greenhouse gas emissions as their economies grow, and that those limits must be subject to some form of outside verification.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told reporters in a news conference that China is open to "dialogue and cooperation that is not intrusive, that does not infringe on China's sovereignty" -- a major linguistic departure from the country's staunch opposition to transparency measures throughout the talks so far.
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