And in the end, 26 nations (out of 193!!) got together at the last minute and hashed out the Copenhagen Accord, a mere realization that in future, the world must come up with a strategy to limit the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. Like we didn't know that already.
Plus, the other nations only 'noted' the Accord, without committing to it particularly enthusiastically. Whatever Obama says about the Accord (do check out India's response), Copenhagen WAS a FAILURE!
Oh and that was a 'small' matter about climate protesters clogging up the venue.
I'm not kidding. There were so many of them, and the wonderful organizers, wanting to 'be democratic' and 'champion freedom of speech', let them harass, block and crowd the place. This was to the extent that important people who actually had important things to contribute could not get in. Like Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the Stern Report.
Anyway, a big, sincere thank you to all those who prayed for a victory of common sense. I feel your pain and I'm sorry it got thwarted. But, the battle goes on.
And a big thank you to China, for blocking anything and everything constructive, plus all developing nations who act like global warming is a rich world problem and keep insisting they fund every damn thing the developing world needs to do to stop it. Right down to the last freakin' eco-bulb. Screw them all.
I guess we shouldn't forget the developed countries. Thanks for setting a wonderful example, and to the U.S, that 17% emissions cuts target is a really wonderful effort. And to all you rich, money-minded fools all over the world for presenting governments with a powerful lobby against emissions cuts.
And lastly, if you're the consumer out there who insists on his air-cond every night, his SUV, his extravagant plastic use, his laziness to recycle, and his general Earth-polluting ignorance, this goes out to you too.
I love you all!
The outcome at the Copenhagen climate summit was destined to falter. Developing countries as we all know it were not very keen on signing it anyway. Nevertheless i believe the biggest contributor to the failure of the Copenhagen talks were none other than the developed countries especially the US, and the UK. First of all they messed up the talks by drafting certain parts of the climate agreement text in secret without the knowledge of developing countries. And I consider this as blatant dishonesty on the part on those nations which did it in secret. After all if this summit was to be a truly multilateral summit and one that would gain legitimacy among developing states as it should have been, then I think it is fundamentally wrong to conduct such a summit/treaty with a penchant for secrecy. Secondly did you read the leaked text Danish text which said that all climate change finance would be conducted by the World Bank? Well, i cant help but to agree with the Sudanese minister who said that this maneuver by developed countries would grant them more authority- especially the US. After all i am sure that you are familiar with how the World Bank is used by the US to implement its foreign policy agenda in third world countries. Instead the US and the UK could have denied developing countries an excuse to walk out of Copenhagen by laying the groundwork for a newly created global environmental development bank with startup capital from not only developed countries but also from rich governments of the third world such as China. And finally the bank would be able conduct climate change financing in a way that recognizes the shifts of wealth and power to new areas, and away from the US.
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