Disillusionment and cynicism greet ‘failure’ of climate change summit
Raphael Vassallo “If the world’s climate was a bank, the US would have saved it.”
It is a chilling and stark assessment of the lack of commitment among world leaders to prevent what many now believe to be an inevitable global tragedy. And yet, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s cynical remark this week may well prove to be the most memorable to have emerged from the failed climate change summit at Copenhagen.
After two weeks of riots and wrangling in the Danish capital – characterised mainly by a walkout by poorer nations who demand more money in return for their co-operation, while the USA and China locked horns over emission reduction targets – the only visible outcome on Friday was a weak, non-binding and ultimately ineffectual accord, which even the most optimistic observers admit fell far short of expectation.
Ultimately the agreement only ‘recognises’ the need to keep rising world temperatures to within 2 degrees; but in the absence of any clear international commitment to abide by even this vague and loose target – which in any case must still be ratified by each individual country – it appears we are no closer to any long-term solution to the climate change issue than we were before talks even began.
Foremost among those to acknowledge failure has been US president Barack Obama himself, who described the progress reached as “not enough.”
“We have come a long way, but we have much further to go,” Obama told reporters yesterday. But it is debatable in the extreme whether even this modest appraisal of progress – echoed by Britain’s Gordon Brown, who described the deal as a “vital first step” – is consonant with the actual agreement reached amid much bickering and horse-trading at the Copenhagen summit.
Certainly NGOs around the world don’t think so: starting with Friends of the Earth (Malta), which described the agreement as “shameful”.
“Politicians cannot call this outcome a success when in fact nothing meaningful has been agreed,” FoE chairperson Martin Galea Degiovanni said yesterday.
“The European Union and other rich countries have stood motionless when giant strides forward are required, given the scale and urgency of the climate crisis facing the world. The world now needs a bold dramatic shift in political will from the European Union and other developed nations responsible for causing the climate crisis.”
But with the high hopes that preceded Copenhagen now in tatters, any notion of a “bold dramatic shift” in the near future now appears firmly out of reach.
“European and other developed countries must commit to at least 40% emission reductions by 2020 without offsetting, and supply the money developing countries desperately need to deal with climate change. Failure to do so is shameful,” Galea Degiovanni observed.
Still, some quarters have expressed a less gloomy outlook: among them, Malta’s Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who sounded a lonely note of optimism ahead of the summit’s closure on Friday.
“(President Obama) is right, we are not here to make speeches, but to take decisions,” Dr Gonzi said. “The EU has done this, I hope the others follow suit.”
It is not clear which EU decisions the Prime Minister had in mind, but one thing’s for sure: he cannot be faulted for failing to look on the bright side of life.
After all, hope springs eternal in the human breast.
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