President Barack Obama swept into Copenhagen this morning and, after negotiating all day and late into the night (Denmark time), managed to secure an agreement in the final hours of the climate change conference.
If anyone could break an international stalemate, after all, it's this Nobel Peace Prize-winning super-president. But the deal is being called a "partial victory" at best, and a complete "COP out" at worst.
According to a New York Times report, the deal came following a "dramatic moment" in which Obama crashed a meeting of the Chinese, Indian and Brazilian leaders, leading to new talks which "cemented key terms of the deal. . . "
A two-page draft text of the agreement obtained by The Guardian shows that it leaves much to be desired. According to the Guardian article, it says deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions are required, but doesn't give specific targets. It says countries "ought" to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, but doesn't obligate them to do so. The text was drafted by a select group of 28 leaders, including Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Environmental NGOs are weighing in with statements that range from hopeful to totally pissed off.
Bill McKibben at 350.org called it "a declaration that small and poor countries don't matter, that international civil society doesn't matter, and that serious limits on carbon don't matter.
"The president has wrecked the UN and he's wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming. It may get Obama a reputation as a tough American leader, but it's at the expense of everything progressives have held dear. 189 countries have been left powerless, and the foxes now guard the carbon henhouse without any oversight."
Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, said: "The deal is a triumph of spin over substance. It recognizes the need to keep warming below 2 degrees but does not commit to do so. It kicks back the big decisions on emissions cuts and fudges the issue of climate cash."
The Sierra Club's executive director, Carl Pope, called it a "historic, if incomplete deal."
"A chilly two weeks in Copenhagen has given humanity its best chance of preventing the ravages of a warming world. Today's deal is neither perfect nor complete, but we must not this chance slip away."
Colleen Kimmett reports for The Tyee.
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DPL
2 years ago
The spin is quite diferent
The spin is quite diferent in the Canadian papers. I understnad there were more than 30,000 people in and around the events. End result--Let's talk about it some more next year. with the numbers involved talk isn't cheap and the results are pretty minimul
Fiat lux
2 years ago
Anybody who expected any
Anybody who expected any good to come out of this Copenhagen meeting was dreaming. Here again is an excellent example how imaginary monetary values and the fraudulent definition of economic efficiency have been and are overruling physical realities wrecking the world and humanity.
The worst example is the offer of $100. billion to some so called "poor nations", to cope with the consequences of their destruction, enslaved by the multinational corporate mafia, instead of giving them the potential to feed and clothe themselves.
But that wouldn't be "business friendly" and the world government of the stockmarkets would never permit it, so let tens of millions starve to death every year and pump more pollution into the air to "create wealth".
Ed Deak.
Ed Deak.
Sask Resident
2 years ago
CO2 Cuts
Has anyone considered the effects a 50% cut in CO2 emissions would have on us and our society. Shutting down the oil sands would reduce Canadian emissions by 4% so 46% to go. Stop half the vehicles from driving on the road, half the powered boats, half the airline flights, half the trucks shipping food and half the helicopters looking for the lost and for forest fires!
What else? Half the electronics, mostly made from plastics, from store shelves? How about limiting internet access to half your usual use to reduce electrical demand and half the health care access to limit drug production, electrical use and replacing once use devices?
So, what are the effects and what are you willing to do without?
Adam M
2 years ago
Gee
Does anyone have any doubt that catastrophic effects of global warming will have to materialize before anything is done about it? I know that nobody really cares in BC. I have friends who worry incessantly about global warming, always want to talk about the latest snippet of information they've read about or heard about, yet they're driving out every weekend with V8 trucks to go highmarking with their snowmobiles!
Cognitive dissonance, anyone?