Rich nations win climate 'shame' award

Copenhagen, Dec 7 : The world's most industrialised nations won Monday's edition of the Fossil of the Day award, a prize given by environmentalists to the biggest offenders of the fight against climate change.

The coalition of industrialised nations won first prize for arriving at the Copenhagen conference on climate change with a "profoundly deficient level of ambition" regarding emission cuts.

The second prize was awarded jointly to Sweden, Finland and Austria for backing what organisers described as "dubious" EU plans on logging.

Third prize went to Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, for saying his country would not be swayed by the Copenhagen "hype".

Canada has said it will not try to meet its commitment to reduce emissions by 6 percent below 1990-levels between 2008 and 2012.

The Fossil of the Day is awarded on a daily basis during the 12-day Copenhagen conference by the Climate Action Network, which groups nearly 500 environmental non-governmental organisations.