SDB: Beyond Copenhagen

SDB: Beyond Copenhagen:

"It is now clear the Copenhagen conference, and the entire process that has been unfolding for the past two years, has utterly and completely failed. None of the work has resulted in an agreement of any kind, let alone a strong and fair one. At last minute, a proposal put together by the US and a few other countries behind closed doors was submitted, with no emissions targets. The UN delegates have now left and the conference has broken up without approval of this meaningless 'deal'.

The US and some other countries produced a two page declaration outside of UN processes. This document mentioned only a 'goal' of limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. There were no emissions targets listed at all, no method for monitoring or enforcement, and no obligations, legal or otherwise, for participating countries. The US itself has made no new commitments to emissions targets beyond its prior inadequate proposal of reducing by 4 percent. The document is short, vague, ineffective, and essentially meaningless."