Climate talks collapse in Copenhagen

Tempers have flared. The mood has got darker. The future looks set, so to say, to be more like the past or even the present after everything that has not happened in Copenhagen. Much as he would like to call the deal the United States has reached with China, India, Brazil and South Africa on coping with climate change a breakthrough, President Obama knows that the long-drawn negotiations in the Danish capital have clearly failed to satisfy the world's more disadvantaged nations. Of course, the developed world has promised to make available nearly $30 billion dollars to poor countries over the next ten years to help them handle the crisis on an immediate basis. Of course, there is the promise of $100 billion more coming after that. And, of course, there is the target of not letting world temperatures rise above 2 degrees Celsius in order to stabilise the planet.
Yet the overwhelming reality obvious to people across the world, especially to those in countries like Bangladesh, the Maldives and in Africa, is that the deal which the major polluters of the globe have struck among themselves does precious little to address their concerns. The US-brokered deal would have the polluting countries take measures to limit their individual carbon emissions. And yet there are all the good reasons why feelings of betrayal on the part of the poor are justified. There is, first of all, no guarantee as to where the promised money will come from or how it will be handled and disbursed. Second, there has been no mention of any specifics regarding how much of gas emissions the nations involved in the deal will go for. Third (and this is an even worse aspect of the so-called deal), nothing is there in the accord to suggest that there will be mechanisms for verification of cuts in gas emissions. Fourth, despite the target of 2 degrees Celsius being agreed to (the poorer nations feel that 1.5 degrees Celsius would be more to the point), there is nothing to suggest as to how that goal will be reached. Fifth, the deal will not be legally binding for those who have agreed to it.
In short, the climate change talks in Copenhagen have not been the historic moment the leaders and other representatives of the 194 nations gathered there had looked forward to. The fact that the chairman of the conference, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, has himself noted that the agreement reached by the US and the other nations cannot be adopted typifies the disappointment. He was clearly referring to the huge anger now being felt by nations confronted with the effects of climate change. Venezuela has called the deal a coup d' etat; and the Sudanese representative, speaking for the Group of 77, described it as a suicide pact.
The Copenhagen talks have been a disappointment. What has now happened is an attitude on the part of the US, India, China, Brazil and South Africa (none of the other nations present were consulted on the deal) that tells all other nations to take it or leave it. That is a mistake. And sooner rather than later, everyone must come back to deal with a crisis which will have repercussions even for those who have now tended to ride roughshod on the sentiments of those directly in the line of disaster.