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Source: Reuters -
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US President Barack Obama reached a climate agreement on Friday with India, South Africa, China and Brazil, a US official said.
The deal outlined fell far short of the ambitions for the Copenhagen summit.
Here are reactions.
YVO DE BOER, HEAD OF THE UN CLIMATE CHANGE SECRETARIAT
"The mountain goes on and on, it seems. I do think we need to
see how this text is received by the broader group of countries.
It's great that small group of leaders gets together and tries to
advance the process. But ultimately the way things work here it has
to be acceptable to every country."
"If this makes it through the meeting in a couple of hours' time then I see it as a modest success. We could have achieved more."
EUROPEAN COMMISSION SPOKESWOMAN
"A deal is better than no deal. What could be agreed today,
falls far below our expectations. But It keeps our goals and
ambitions alive. It addresses the needs of developing countries. It
was the only deal available in Copenhagen."
BRAZIL'S CLIMATE CHANGE AMBASSADOR SERGIO SERRA
"It's very disappointing I would say but it is not a
failure...if we agree to meet again and deal with the issues that
are still pending."
"We have a big job ahead to avoid climate change through effective emissions reduction targets and this was not done here."
HEAD OF CHINA'S CLIMATE DELEGATION, XIE ZHENHUA
"The meeting has had a positive result, everyone should be happy.
After negotiations both sides have managed to preserve their bottom
line. For the Chinese this was our sovereignty and our national
interest."
JOHN SAUVEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GREENPEACE UK
"The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the
guilty men and women fleeing to the airport. There are no targets
for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty.
"It seems there are too few politicians in this world capable of looking beyond the horizon of their own narrow self-interest, let alone caring much for the millions of people who are facing down the threat of climate change."
ROB STAVINS, PROF OF BUSINESS AND GOVT AT HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
"The most striking thing, it's incredible, virtually unprecedented,
is that heads of state sat down in a room together and did the
negotiations themselves."
"It's less than many people had hoped for and expected even two weeks ago. What was needed was to bring the rapidly growing economies and that's what was achieved. The deficiency we all knew from the time of Kyoto was that rapidly growing key emerging economies were not included."
STEVE SAWYER, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE GLOBAL WIND ENERGY
COUNCIL
"On the basis of drafts I've seen so far ... standing on its
own a political declaration like that doesn't do much other than
paper over the fact that that governments have failed to keep the
promises they made to each other (in Bali, Indonesia two years ago
at the launch of the two-year climate talks meant ot agree a
climate pact)."
JOHN ASHE, CHAIR OF KYOTO PROTOCOL TALKS UNDER UN "Given
where we started and the expectations for this conference, anything
less than a legally
binding and agreed outcome falls far short of the mark."
"On the other hand though I'm a bit of a realist so I do realise that perhaps the bar was set too high and the fact that there's now a deal - I haven't seen the details I saw earlier versions I haven't seen the latest one -- the fact that there's now a deal perhaps gives us something to hang our hat on."
"I hope it sets the stage for serious work in 2010 so that we can conclude what we originally set out to do here in Copenhagen we can conclude that perhaps as soon as June, failing that by December 2010."
TIM JONES, CLIMATE OFFICER, WORLD DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT,
ANTI-POVERTY LOBBY GROUP
"This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish,
culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that has condemned
millions of people around the world to untold suffering.
"To say that this deal is in any way historic or meaningful is to completely misrepresent the fact that this deal is devoid of real content. It is actually meaningless."
NNIMMO BASSEY, CHAIR OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
INTERNATIONAL
"Copenhagen has been an abject failure. Justice has not been
done. By delaying action, rich countries have condemned millions of
the world's poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life as
climate change accelerates. The blame for this disastrous outcome
is squarely on the developed nations."
CARL POPE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SIERRA CLUB
"The world's nations have come together and concluded a historic if
incomplete agreement to begin tackling global warming. President
Obama and the rest of the world paid a steep price here in
Copenhagen because of obstructionism in the United States
Senate.
"Now that the rest of the world, including countries like China and India, has made clear that it is willing to take action, the Senate must pass domestic legislation as soon as possible.
JOHN LANCHBERY, BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL
"It sounds very vague. There's no next step, nothing to link
through to how to get a final deal done."
FRED KRUPP, HEAD OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND
"Today's agreement takes the first important steps toward true
transparency and accountability in an international climate
agreement. The sooner the US speaks through Senate legislation, the
sooner we can set the terms of engagement for talks to come."
INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH US KATE
HORNER
"This toothless declaration, being spun by the US as an
historic success, reflects contempt for the multilateral process
and we expect more from our Nobel prize winning President."
JAKE SCHMIDT OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE
COUNCIL
The deal will "get big countries moving in the right direction" on
reducing their carbon emissions.
What do you think of the deal reached? Is it
strong enough to make a difference to global warming? Have
your say on our messageboard below.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentscambreaker said on 2009-12-21 @ 09:40 NZDT: Report abusive post
The north and south polar ice caps on Mars have been shrinking for years. This is due to greater output of heat from the Sun, or perhaps the Martians have started up a whole lot of new industry there belching out CO2 from their chimneys. The Sun had thousands of sun-spots, now it has only a handful. Sun-spots are areas where there is reduced output radiation, so now there is more heat coming from the Sun.This has been the case for the last 17 years.
scambreaker said on 2009-12-19 @ 20:26 NZDT: Report abusive post
How arrogant! To say that mankind will hold the atmospheric temperature to no greater than a 2 degree rise !! The Earths magnetic field is diminishing. The only reason the Vanallen belt is in place is by virtue of the Earths magnetic field. As this reduces, the Vanallen belt thins, thus letting in more Sun radiation. As the oceans then warm, they absorb less CO2. Increased CO2 levels FOLLOWS atmospheric warming, it does not PRECEDE it! Tuvalu is sinking, not the sea rising!!
marthur said on 2009-12-19 @ 19:02 NZDT: Report abusive post
This deal is no where enough. It allows the short sighted people to again put off the most important decision we need to make. It will be too late if we are not careful. We are already following the worst case scenario from the IPCC. The short sightedness of these leaders is incredible, our own included.
Zen said on 2009-12-19 @ 18:26 NZDT: Report abusive post
wow acting like we can controll the temprature on the planet earth what a totally insane idea, are they going to build a big umbrella to block the sun?
katedye said on 2009-12-08 @ 20:44 NZDT: Report abusive post
Africa should be accountable for itself. huge amounts of money are poured into that continent, yet genocide and official embezzlement and corruption continues. Small countries that are nearly bankrupted themselves by immigrant dependancy, e.g. NZ, should not be leading the way in sacrifice, like carbon trading, to help other countries. NZ should be regulating its own offenders for pollution. Enforcing clean air, clean water industry in NZ. Standards not money is the solution kiwis.