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Big powers caused poor Copenhagen result

Under the Copenhagen Accord, temperatures are likely to rise by nearly 4° C, aggravating climate change, wiping out small island countries and reducing billions of people to an insecure existence as sea levels inexorably rise, wind patterns abruptly change and glaciers rapidly melt, increasing hunger, displacement and devastation.

The cost of tailing the US  DNA Praful Bidwai  January 5, 2010 The outcome of the Copenhagen climate conference has been seen by many analysts as signifying a major shift in the global distribution of power. There is clearly some merit in this assessment. This is the first time that the Western bloc led by the United States split so completely on a non-military issue of great global significance.

The European Union was totally bypassed as the US sealed the so-called Copenhagen Accord with a new grouping of fast-growing developing countries — BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China). Close US allies like Japan, Canada and Australia, and G-8 member Russia, played no role in shaping this collusive deal agreed behind the backs of most of the 193 countries engaged in negotiations under the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change.

The BASIC countries’ importance as the single-largest — and steadily increasing — source of greenhouse emissions among all groupings is undeniable. They will critically determine the future level of atmospheric greenhouse concentrations. But within the US+BASIC, power is unevenly distributed. China and the US, the world’s two highest emitters, each accounting for more than 20% of the global total, can single-handedly undo whatever good the world sets out to do. Contrariwise, they can help decisively combat climate change by drastically reducing their emissions and promoting low-carbon development.

At Copenhagen, the US and China, followed by India, decided they didn’t want an ambitious, strong, effective and equitable agreement which would sharply reduce emissions. Such an agreement would limit global warming to 1.5 to 2° C over pre-industrial levels by ensuring that global emissions plateau by 2020 and fall by 50% by 2050. Under the Copenhagen Accord, temperatures are likely to rise by nearly 4° C, aggravating climate change, wiping out small island countries and reducing billions of people to an insecure existence as sea levels inexorably rise, wind patterns abruptly change and glaciers rapidly melt, increasing hunger, displacement and devastation.

Copenhagen, then, represents a power shift of a negative, undesirable, retrograde kind.

The cost of tailing the US – dnaindia.com

January 6, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change, politics international | Copenhagen