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12/28/09

The Copenhagen Climate Talks turned out to be the backdrop to a series of much wider disputes

So what have the Copenhagen Climate talks achieved? Almost from the start they had become little more than the backdrop to a series of much wider disputes — disagreements between the rich and poor nations, the rivalry between the United States and Europe, and between West and East, and the interests of the oil states. The biggest problems of all lay with the Chinese. They firmly refused to accept any notion of legally binding limits on their emissions.

The opposition of Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela and a handful of others meant the accord could not be formally approved so instead it was simply ‘‘noted’’. For some, the battles between China and US signal far more than a battle about how to tackle climate change. A UN official said: ‘‘What we are seeing here is China flexing its muscles. They are the new emerging superpower and are determined that US should respect them for that. That’s the real agenda, not climate.’

The Times of India  Were Copenhagen talks just about ‘power shift’? - by


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