-
People walk on the street with a huge globe in the background in Copenhagen - Source: Reuters -
Watch Video
-
Related
New Zealand's top negotiators have arrived back from the Copenhagen climate change summit saying they're disappointed the global talks achieved so little.
The UN talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell well short of their original goals after prolonged negotiations failed to paper over differences between rich nations and the developing world.
The UN talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell well short of their original goals after prolonged negotiations failed to paper over differences between rich nations and the developing world.
Critics have complained the explicit deal struck to limit global warming to 2degC provided no details of how the goal would be reached, and that the emission cuts that were promised would be insufficient to get there.
Prime Minister John Key has characterised the deal reached at the United Nations conference as "short of the aspirations and expectations" that people held, while his minister Tim Groser isn't exactly thrilled with the outcome.
"I think it's a disappointing result from all the political investment that's been put into it. But I think it is a start. I hope people can build on it.
"What it will allow us to do is pursue an almost unique thing in our country, which is we farm trees, without incurring costs for no particular benefit," says Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues Tim Groser.
Geen Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons has labelled the deal a "tragedy for humanity". The purpose of the meeting was to agree on a second commitment period for the Kyoto protocol but that had not been achieved, she says.
"We came here wanting an ambitious, fair and binding agreement. The talks have failed on all three counts.
"There are no country targets, only an appendix where countries offer non-binding reductions which collectively will not stop warming of 2 degrees. As it is not ambitious or binding, it cannot be fair to the developing countries that are already suffering from climate change."
Labour Party climate change spokesman Charles Chauvel, who also attended the conference, says the deal canbe built on.
Chauvel believes considerable progress has been made around verification of different countries' reductions and on help for developing countries to adapt.
"The momentum of this progress needs to be built on. At the same time, much more work is needed to set out binding and appropriate targets for both developed and developing countries."
New Zealand needs to do its part and set a more ambitious target, Chauvel says.
New Zealand's conditional target for reducing climate harming emissions is to reach 10-20% below 1990 levels by 2020, and Key says a stronger target would hurt the country's economy.
While the talks in Copenhagen fell short of expectations New Zealand came away with an agreement to boost research into agricultural emissions and to look at the rules around forestry.
John Key told Radio New Zealand we can come away from the talks
and say "it's been a victory, in so much that we have made progress
in the changes to the rules, subject to them being ratified."
