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Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, 2009 ended with agreement reached
between US and some developing countries
 The Climate Change Conference
2009 (COP15), held in Copenhagen, Denmark between December 7th to
18th 2009 ended on Friday December 18th, 2009 with some sort of agreement
among some key nations of the World. President Barack Obama said
that the United States of America reached an agreement that will
potentially limit World's temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius
with major developing countries including China, India, and South
Africa. Brazil was later said to have agreed to this agreement.
Obama said the agreement is a
"meaningful agreement" but only a first step which is
insufficient to fight Climate Change.
Besides the 5 countries that are part
of the agreement it was not initially clear which other nations of
the 193 attending Other conference support the agreement. however,
individual messages provided by other World leaders showed that some
other developed nations believed the conference has reached an
agreement, which although considered insufficient and falling short
of expectations going to the conference, is a step forward and
could be a starting point to reaching a legally binding agreement
among nations in 2010. These are some of the statements made by some
of the leaders of the developed nations, following the end of the
conference:
President Sarkozy of France said
"We have an agreement,": "The text we have is not
perfect." He said, what the next step now is for all countries
including China to submit written plans for curbs in carbon dioxide
emissions by January 2010.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of U.K.
said
"We have made a start. What we need to follow up on
quickly is ensuring a legally-binding outcome. I know that we will
need a legally-binding treaty over the next period of time if we are
to secure all the commitments, particularly the years after 2020,"
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said she has mixed
feelings but she accepts the accord. She said "The decision has been very
difficult for me. We have done one step, we have hoped for several more".
The European Union (EU) said more cuts
should have been pledged by the World's first and second World's worst
emitters - China and USA respectively.
Canada Prime Minister, Mr. Stephen Harper said because of North
America's economic integration, Canada will response to the climate
change accord in concert with the United States. He said "If the
Americans don't act, it will severely limit our ability to act, but
if the Americans do act, it is absolutely essential that we act in
concert with them,"
There are mixed
reactions, though among the developing nations including China and
India.
China's top climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua said "After
negotiations, both sides have managed to preserve their bottom line,
for the Chinese this was our sovereignty and our national interest,"
China has been accused of lack of transparency and accountability in
reporting their emission cuts. Other developing nations felt the
deal is not sufficient to save the vulnerable countries from the
threats of global warming. The spokesman for the G77 developing
nations group said their suspicion that an agreement will be imposed
on other nations by both USA and China has been confirmed.
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