|PIC1|Christian Aid and CAFOD are among the aid agencies warning that poor people in the developing world will die as a result of the limited deal that emerged from the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen on Friday.

The US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa tabled a deal late last night that acknowledges the need to keep average worldwide temperatures from rising by more than 2C but sets no legally binding target on carbon emissions.

US President Barack Obama said it was a “meaningful agreement” and “unprecedented breakthrough” but developing countries are angry that the Copenhagen Accord fails to commit countries to formal targets on carbon emissions reductions that would prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Even with the pledge to send developing countries $100 billion a year by 2020, the deal was dismissed out of hand by several developing countries.

Bolivia, Venezuela and Sudan said they could not accept a deal that does not set targets for carbon emission cuts.

The chief negotiator for the Pacific island of Tuvalu Ian Fry was quoted by the BBC as saying: “Can I suggest that in biblical terms, it looks like we’re being offered 30 pieces of silver to sell our future.”

Sudanese negotiator Lumumba Stanislus Di-Aping commented: “The promise of $100 billion will not bribe us to destroy the continent.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Copenhagen summit was a first step towards a legally binding agreement on climate change.

“There is progress but it’s a first step,” he told Sky News. “It’s always difficult, it’s always hard to take that first step. Having taken that first step, I hope we can move quickly to the next step, which is to get a legally binding treaty.”

Christian Aid called the deal “seriously flawed” and warned that the poor in developing countries would “pay with their lives for the strong arm tactics and intransigence of rich countries” at the summit.

The aid agency’s senior climate change advocacy officer Nelson Muffah said: “Already 300,000 people die each year because of the impact of climate change, most of them in the developing world. The lack of ambition shown by rich countries in Copenhagen means that number will grow.

“Rich countries resorted to strong arm tactics and intransigence to shirk their responsibilities. A statement of inadequate political intent is not the fair, ambitious and legally binding deal that is required. It represents a setback in the fight for climate justice, but the battle goes on.”

CAFOD’s head of policy and campaigns Neil Thorns was quoted by the Press Association as saying: “How could some countries put limiting self-interest above unrelenting scientific evidence and a growing number of deaths amongst the poorest due to climate change?"