The “Copenhagen Accord”, the final document on international climate change mitigation, has been finalized, but not approved with a consensus, so technically, it has not passed. At least, that seems to be the case. It’s hard to tell exactly, because they are still, as of 12:30 CET Denmark time and 5:30 am CST in the U.S., arguing and debating the process and final document. They can’t adopt it formally because there is no consensus. Many delegates have left already. And no, Obama didn’t save the day, but he did work hard at negotiations.
Many delegates and negotiators did stay despite contentiousness, accusations of sneakiness and people making agreements without everyone being aware of the meetings; even accusations of people being shut out of discussions.
But after many propositions and suggestions from people who had not slept since last Wednesday it was/is kind of hard to make sense of what did or did not happen at the end. There is no consensus accord, that is clear, so no official agreement. It’s really too early to tell whether the conference was a failure though. Discussions are still ongoing right now (1:00 pm Copenhagen time). Some of the people discussing this have not slept for over 2 days. Many people wanted the bill to be blocked from passage, and it more or less was, by Sudan and some other developing countries such as Tuvalu.
What will they tell people when they go back home, that they have no accord that is binding? Or that we have, as American media calls it, a “political agreement” that is non-binding.
The talks were a major disappointment in some respects, and there is (as yet) no deal, but we knew there would be disagreements that would be tough to overcome. A huge sticking point (that they are still discussing as I write this) is a 2C rise versus what the small island nations and some others want, a 1.5C rise. There was quite a bit of talk of individual countries doing things on their own. As Yvo de Boer just said, there were mistakes that were made:
– The procedure and administrative mistake where a COP decsion was adopted in the wrong setting. So the record has to be corrected because no agreement was made.
– The confusion over the exact language which was adopted from the podium. He didn’t even know the correct language himself.
– How to parties associate themselves with the deal when so many secret and extra meetings and negotiating sessions were going on?
Sudan, which threw a wrench into the proceedings at the very end, just said they are very pleased at the outcome.
Websites where you can read the latest:
The Guardian, which thinks it’s all over –Low targets, goals dropped
Copenhagen Deal — Activists React. The deal (click here to read the document released to the media, or read the AP’s summary) as described by Obama reflects some progress helping poor nations cope with climate change and getting China to disclose its actions to address the warming problem.
Though how they could do that without knowing the outcome is unclear. There is still no formal outcome.
The accord is inadequate, but worse, cap and trade is the exact wrong way to approach the problem. We are facing a dire situation of human survival amid storms and floods and droughts that will rival nothing seen in the past, and we are looking to a cap and trade scheme, the markets, and capitalism to fix this, all couched in promises of “green jobs” and “new energy” which according to Nancy Pelosi includes NATURAL GAS.
Come on people, we have to get these dinosaurs out of Congress. Let’s clean house next year. Only elect to congress people who know what a fossil fuel is and what they do to our planet. Enough of this greenwashing natural gas and coal. THere is no such thing as clean coal.
As for the summit, it achieved nothing we didn’t already know. It was a waste of time and effort. They could have done what they ended up with through email and saved themselves the giant carbon footprint. Haven’t these delegates and negotiators ever heard of Skype? Call it in folks, you don’t have to all fly to one location.
Obama didn’t write the text. THat’s is a completely Ameri-centric claim. He helped craft it but he certainly didn’t write it. Oddly enough the day was probably saved by the Chinese and Ed Miliband of the UK. Obama was long gone by the time they adopted the draft as an accepted accord. I watched it unfold online, live, and it was fascinating. But it was not a great achievement. Everyone was frustrated and upset and the Danish President looked like he might cry at one point.
Obama certainly didn’t save the day and if he’s serious about climate change, he has to do a lot more. A serious Carbon tax with a revenue returned to the people is the way to go.
Make fossil fuels expensive and they will eventually go away, which is what we want!