d'accord?

The 'historic' Copenhagen conference ended after two weeks of dead-lock with a haphazard all-nighter resulting in an unfinished assignment. Remind you of college anyone? The last-minute agreement which is the Copenhagen Accord has been praised by China, currently the biggest carbon emitter. No prizes for guessing why: the agreement is nonbinding, which encourages major polluters to make deeper emission cuts but does not require it. If memory serves right, thats what happened the last time with Kyoto!

The only silver-ish lining in this whole debacle is that the rich countries have pledged $100 billion a year by 2020 in aid to poor countries in order to implement green technologies. This pledge spear-headed by America already generates several doubts, chiefly - in the midst of a financial crisis, where can they get this money to simply give away?

Whilst several countries have made declarations of internal emission cuts, none of them are legally binding. Developed nations may already have the infrastructure in place in order to commit to these emission cuts. However developing countries even India and large parts of China have no infrastructure in place to deal with rapid development and growth that they foresee - with no legal measures in place, where will responsibility towards the commons come from?

The good guys and the bad guys have not changed one bit and this is disheartening to note. The United States and China are the biggest emitters and they have somehow managed to walk away without any legal bindings in spite of pressure from Japan and the EU. India's over-ambitious plans have no bearing without solid directions for their enforcement.

Inter governmental negotiations are complex as admitted by several delegates and many have expressed disappointment at the current outcome. Many others are hopeful that this is the first step towards the goal of a legally binding treaty. Lack of accountability makes environmental processes haphazard either within international or national jurisdiction. This is further reinforced by the lack of transparency on the part of governing agencies.

Quoting UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon it is a "significant first step" although he admitted that, "much was left to be done"

the big Cop out

I have purposely avoided writing about the Copenhagen conference because I decided to keep my sanity. Inter-governmental negotiations are almost always a waste of time and energy; however, as the world doesn't have a better method, we trudge on with it. Disappointments at Copenhagen have been a long time coming and reaching a decision on the last night of the debacle is hardly the way to go about it.

So far my impression on Copenhagen is the following: The Russians are defunct, Obama and his Nobel - big whoop! Brown is going, "Golly, this isn't working". China won't jump on the boat without US support, India won't do it without China. Brazil keeps topping polls as the country most concerned about climate change. The EU of course are the under-dog good guys. Japan is showing signs of commitment but who cares because they are so small. Hilary Clinton says on the last day after an all-nighter that progress is being made. Basically they've put out 46,200 tonnes of CO2 for this all-round joke of a meet and greet.

Copenhagen represents a classical geopolitical dead-lock, a socio-ecological conundrum. The last minute deal called the 'Copenhagen Accord' brokered by Barack Obama with China, India, Brazil and South Africa did not receive universal support from the 193 countries participating. The accord, which gutted a comprehensive agreement to pay poor countries to protect their forests, since the mass cutting of trees accounts for 20% of global emissions, is not binding and does not have a set date for capping carbon emissions. Sudan's chief negotiator, compared it to the Holocaust, while Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said that the world is smelling of sulphur and referred to Obama as Satan.

Ian Fry of Tuvalu, the drowning island-nation that has become the poster country for the perils of rising sea levels, likened the accord to "being offered 30 pieces of silver to betray our people and our future".

Copenhagen in short, has become a playground of bullies calling each other names, refusing to play nice, not even acknowledging the bigger picture. Leaders of the world, grow up!