Copenhagen Climate Change Summit's Vague Results

Hopenhagen Conference Provides Little Comfort for Environmentalists

Jan 6, 2010 Marc Latham

The Copenhagen UN Climate Change summit of December 7-18, 2009 was considered a crucial conference for the control of carbon emissions and climate change. Did it fail?

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen termed the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Summit as "Hopenhagen" at the start of the conference, but hope of a binding treaty between the representatives from 192 nations at the twelve day meeting slowly seeped away as poor communication and political squabbles prevented the responsible dialogue that may have resulted in a successful outcome. At the end of lengthy negotiations that had been anything but united and carbon neutral, a last gasp compromise meant all the hot air had not been entirely wasted, and some hope was provided by the Copenhagen Accord.

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference Results

The COP15 Copenhagen Conference took place between December 7th and December 19th 2009, and officials and ministers from 192 countries attended the conference. Over 20,000 people attended in total, and there were also thousands of climate change protestors outside the summit.

The conference looked to be heading for total failure but political leaders scratched together a last minute compromise that did not include any binding agreements. Avoiding total disarray, leaders agreed to continue working towards the targets set at the start of the conference. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, called it a beginning. Politicians such as American President, Barack Obama, also hoped the outcome was a step in the right direction. The document that emerged from the Climate Change conference is the Copenhagen Accord.

What is in the Copenhagen Accord?

The Copenhagen Accord contains twelve points as set out in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change report (unfccc.int). The main points contained in the document are:

The signees recognise scientific findings that proclaim climate change to be one of the greatest challenges faced in our time.

  • They agree to work towards keeping the rise in global temperatures to below two degrees Celsius.
  • Large industrialised countries must provide plans for cutting carbon emissions by January 30th, 2010.
  • They must prevent deforestation.
  • Developing countries should be provided with incentives to use clean energy.

Climate Change Targets Will Now be Scrutinised

The UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change (decc.gov.uk) reported that some of the Copenhagen Outcomes that resulted from the UN Climate Change Summit countries were:

  • countries will now be held to account for what they are actually achieving, with mandatory reporting every two years for developing countries.
  • to aid developing countries, $30 billion of immediate short term funding from developed countries will be provided over the next three years to kick start emission reduction measures.

However, these measures are not enough for many climate change activists, and they still consider Copenhagen to have been a failed opportunity that could cost the planet and its inhabitants dearly.

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Jan 21, 2010 1:49 AM
Guest :
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Jan 29, 2010 12:23 AM
Guest :
Do all of our world leaders meet to discuss a vital issue to prevent climate change they came up to a stand still.How could they reduce CO2 emission estimated to be 8 billion metric tons CO2 out to the air yearly.Even if we have the money we can not prevent climate change.The only solution is to change the fuel coal.For this the JPI Fuel of the Philippines had developed ,produce an option fuel for coal fuel all of the worlds directburning heavy industries with an everlasting supply with neutral CO2 emission.For more pls visit web jaime imbat alternative fuel
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