The UN climate change talks in Copenhagen are back on track, with the EU pressurising China and the US to give greater commitments.
Paul Cunningham's blog from Copenhagen
A look at the main players
Morning Ireland: Impasse at climate talks
Environment Minister John Gormley said the US and China were responsible for 50% of the world's emissions and a comprehensive deal cannot be agreed without them.
Meanwhile the UN has apologised for marathon queues outside the conference centre.
45,000 people have told the UN they want to participate at this summit - but the Bella Centre only has a capacity of 15,000.
The gap has led to extraordinary scenes with thousands of people queuing to gain admission to the UN summit, many of whom will be unsuccessful.
Inside the talks, the negotiations have broken up into five strands and - crucially for developing countries - that includes talks on the Kyoto Protocol, concern over which nearly torpedoed the talks yesterday.
Minister Gormley said the EU cannot increase its commitment of cutting its emissions by 20% by the year 2020 until the US significantly increases its current offer.
Friends of the Earth representative Molly Walsh said developing countries have to be reassured that any new deal does not mean the end of the Kyoto Protocol, and the end of binding emissions cutting targets.
World leaders gather
Heads of state and environment ministers from more than 110 nations are attending the event in the Danish capital.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be present, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is travelling two days earlier than expected.
'Time is running out ... There is no time for posturing or blaming,' Mr Ban told reporters in New York before flying to the Danish capital.
'If everything is left to leaders to resolve at the last minute, we risk having a weak deal or no deal at all. And this would be a failure of potentially catastrophic consequence.'
The summit's goal is to agree an outline deal of national pledges to curb carbon emissions and set up a mechanism to provide billions of dollars in help for poor countries in the firing line of climate change.
Negotiations became fraught yesterday when protests from developing countries forced the talks to be suspended for several hours.
Seven countries, led by Algeria - but also including powerful states such as South Africa - accused rich countries of trying to collapse the Kyoto Protocol.
