The news from Copenhagen, on the last day of the UN climate conference, has been a bit confusing. Have they got a climate deal, or have they simply agreed to meet again and talk more while the planet warms up?
As one news item put it: “Representatives of 192 countries quibbled over every word through the night as a weak political declaration started to emerge out of the climate summit once scheduled to finalise a treaty that would tackle global warming.”
The declaration remains “weak” and “wishy washy” in the absence of agreement over the main sticking points dogging this December 7-18 UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference – the refusal by industrialised countries to commit more emission reductions and their unwillingness to put on the table money to help poor countries cope with climate change effects.
So, less than one week to go for Christmas, have the men (and few women) in suits dropped the ball (read: Earth) in Copenhagen? Clarity and interpretations will soon flow. I still hope it won’t come to what cartoonist Marc Roberts envisaged in this cartoon, originally drawn a year ago:
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Open Minds! (formerly: Moving Images blog) 