Copenhagen Climate Change Summit
Opens Doors for More Progress
Click to choose your favorite networking site
by Ryan Jones
Copenhagen (January,
2010) - With the U.N. climate change summit talks now finished in Copenhagen, perspective on the
"Copenhagen Accord" is beginning to surface, pointing overall, to a climate
change deal
falling well short of the conferences original goals. While many delegates
of the 193 attending nations expressed pronounced displeasure of the Copenhagen
climate change accord,
which the UN Climate Change Secretariat called no more than a "letter of
intent", the fact that any deal whatsoever went through was an accomplishment in
itself.
U.S. President, Barack Obama, said, "Today, we have made a meaningful and
unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen. For the first time in history,
all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take
further action to confront the threat of climate change". However, President
Obama also pointed out that, "This progress did not come easily and we know this
progress alone is not enough...We've come a long way, but we have much further
to go."
Indeed, the climate accord must go further in order to more fully
ensure that lasting climate change will take place. Being an accord, there is no legally
binding agreement or even a political deal. To become a U.N. treaty, all 193
participating nations would have to agree to all of the provisions in the deal.
That obviously did not happen at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. While some European nations did indeed agree this
time around, European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, said, "it (the
deal) was clearly below the goal of the European Union. I will not hide my
disappointment".
The Copenhagen Accord simply sets a target of limiting global warming to 2
Degrees Celsius while committing to give $100 billion by 2020 to developing
nations for "dealing" with climate change - namely, small island nations that
are most vulnerable to climate change. And while the non-binding deal calls for
participating countries to list actions they have taken to control greenhouse
gas emissions and their plans to achieve even greater reductions, there is no
overall target for such reductions in greenhouse gases.
Despite all the shortcomings befalling the Copenhagen climate
change summit, the "Copenhagen Accord" does provide for a
deadline to complete a U.N. climate treaty by the end of 2010. The stage for
such a treaty will ultimately take place in one year's time in Mexico, where the
next U.N. world climate summit will take place.
Back to
Green Business News
 |
 |
 |
Follow us
on TWITTER |
NEWS & TIPS
RSS Feed |
NEWS & TIPS
eMAIL update |
Copyright
© 2007, GreenAffiliatePrograms.net - All
Rights Reserved