Copenhagen: Where do we stand?

"We're going to have to build on the momentum that we've established here in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time. We've come a long way but we have much further to go."
- Barrack Obamam


US President Barack Obama has reached what he called a "meaningful" deal with China, India, Brazil and South Africa on climate change.But according to John Sauven of GreenPeace UK- there were no targets for carbon cuts, the Copenhagen conference does not set specific emission reductions and is not legally binding. In his words "it seems there are too few politicians in this world capable of looking beyond the horizon of their own narrow self interest."


The NGO world has had a similar reactions to the summit deeming it a failure.


To summarize - what came out of the summit (hardly!)

• No reference to legally binding agreement
• Recognises the need to limit global temperatures rising no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels
• Developed countries to "set a goal of mobilising jointly $100bn a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries"
• On transparency: Emerging nations monitor own efforts and report to UN every two years. Some international checks
• No detailed framework on carbon markets - "various approaches" will be pursued

The summit did not even meet the modest expectations that were set by the 


leaders. More on our analysis of what did and did'nt happen at the summit......