(RTTNews) -  As was widely expected, the issue of climate change dominated the first day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Danish Prime Minister H.E.

Lars Rasmussen and French President Nicholas Sarkozy were among the special guests in attendance at the meeting as talks centered on the issue of global warming ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen beginning December 7th.

After opening ceremonies featuring speeches by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Queen Elizabeth II, delegates turned to the pursuit of a consensus position on climate change. The issue is especially complex among the nations of the Commonwealth, a group which includes developed and developing nations with competing views on how to limit greenhouse gas emissions while still facilitating economic growth in some of the world's poorest areas.

Secretary-General Ki-moon addressed delegates, saying that "momentum is strong" for an accord on the issue at the Copenhagen talks, and calling on them to work towards "a deal that is ambitious, a deal that is equitable, a deal that satisfies the demands of science".

Rasmussen, whose country will be hosting the conference on climate change, called on delegates to work towards proposals that would allow for the signing of a binding agreement at the upcoming Copenhagen talks, an agreement that would allow for real progress on the issue without undermining the Millennium Development Goals.
The first tangible proposals for how to achieve these goals came from Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In a press conference near the end of the day's events, President Sarkozy announced that he and Brown had tabled a proposal which would provide $10 billion USD to assist developing nations in meeting new carbon emission targets.

The plan, dubbed the Fairness Climate Plan, would cover a three-year period beginning in 2010 and allocate approximately $2 billion to combat deforestation in the developing world.

Though climate change was the issue of the day, there was also talk of human rights concerns surrounding Uganda, host of the last CHOGM in 2007.

The east African country is currently debating a set of controversial laws aimed at curbing the spread of HIV, measures which include putting HIV-positive homosexuals to death. Alluding to international opposition to the measures, President Museveni in his opening speech warned against international "obstruction" of Uganda.

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