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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivers a speech at the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen - Source: Reuters -
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the agreement reached at climate change talks in Copenhagen is a good start.
The summit ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.
"Finally we sealed a deal," Ban says.
"The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this ... is an important beginning."
A long road lies ahead.
The accord - weaker than a legally binding treaty and weaker even than the 'political' deal many had foreseen - has left much to the imagination.
It sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times - seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas.
But it fails to say how this will be achieved.
It holds out the prospect of $US100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but does not specify precisely where this money will come from.
And it pushes decisions on core issues such as emissions cuts into the future.
"This basically is a letter of intent ... the ingredients of an architecture that can respond to the long-term challenge of climate change, but not in precise legal terms. That means we have a lot of work to do on the long road to Mexico," says Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat.
Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico.
Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen - a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
But there are no guarantees.
Non-binding accord
A plenary session of the marathon 193-nation talks in the Danish capital merely "took note" of the new accord, a non-binding deal for combating global warming finalised by US President Barack Obama, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
Work on the pact begun in a meeting of 28 leaders, ministers and officials, including EU countries and small island nations most vulnerable to climate change.
The European Union, which has set itself ambitious emissions cuts targets and encouraged others to follow suit, has only reluctantly accepted the weak deal that finally emerged.
"The decision has been very difficult for me. We have done one step, we have hoped for several more," says German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In the final hours of the talks, which began on December 7 and ended early on Saturday afternoon, delegates agreed to set a deadline to conclude a UN treaty by the end of 2010.
At stake was a deal to fight global warming and promote a cleaner world economy less dependent on fossil fuels.
The accord explicitly recognised a "scientific view" that the world should limit warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius - although the promised emissions cuts were far short of the amount needed to reach that goal.
"We have a big job ahead to avoid climate change through effective emissions reduction targets, and this was not done here," said Brazil's climate change ambassador, Sergio Serra.
A final breakthrough came after US President Barack Obama brokered a final deal with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of India, South Africa and Brazil that they stand behind their commitments to curb growth in greenhouse gases.
Before leaving, Obama said the deal was a starting point.
"This progress did not come easily and we know this progress alone is not enough ... We've come a long way but we have much further to go."
The outcome underscored shortcomings in the chaotic UN process and may pass the initiative in forming world climate policy to the United States and China, the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases.
Stormy
In a stormy overnight session, the talks came to the brink of collapse after Sudan, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia lined up to denounce the US and China-led plan, after heads of state and government had flown home.
Sources close to the talks told Reuters the Danish hosts and UN lawyers had not obtained formal backing from the conference for a smaller group of leaders and ministers to agree a final text, leading to chaos when this was finally presented to a plenary meeting of all 193 countries.
UN talks are meant to be concluded by unanimity.
Under a compromise to avoid collapse, the deal listed the countries that were in favour of the deal and those against.
An all-night plenary session, chaired by Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, hit a low point when a Sudanese delegate said the plan in Africa would be like the Holocaust.
The document "is a solution based on the same very values, in our opinion, that channelled six million people in Europe into furnaces", said Sudan's Lumumba Stanislaus Di-aping.
"The reference to the Holocaust is, in this context, absolutely despicable," said Anders Turesson, chief negotiator of Sweden.
The conference finally merely "took note" of the new accord.
This gives it the same legal status as if it had been accepted, according to senior United Nations official Robert Orr.
But it is far from a full endorsement, and it has also been condemned by many environmental groups as showing a failure of leadership.
What do you think of the summit's outcome? Have your say on the 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.