Copenhagen Accord Leaves Participant Nations Unsatisfied

The non-binding agreement reached in the last hours of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen has been blasted by critics for its vague language and for the lack of commitments from industrialized nations to make concrete reductions.

The Copenhagen Accord, drafted by the U.S., China, India, Brazil and South Africa, recognizes the need to restrict global temperature increases to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.

It does not pinpoint a target year in which emissions should peak, however. Nations have been asked to make specific reductions promises by next February. Emissions reduction efforts will be vouched for by the countries making them, so that “national sovereignty is respected.”

The accord promises $30 billion in aid to developing nations over the next three years to support emissions reduction measures, and aims to provide $100 billion annually by 202 to help poor nations deal with climate change’s effects.

Following the talks, South Africa’s environment minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, faulted the draft process for making changes unwelcome and said the outcome was “disappointing.” She said that African nations had discussed abandoning the talks altogether but had concluded it would be more productive to try to influence the accord from the inside. South Africa is the only African nation among the world’s top 20 emitters of greenhouse gas.

The U.K. climate change minister, Edward Miliband, complained in The Guardian that China in particular expressed opposition to other nations’ desire to create an agreement involving binding emissions reduction targets. Some present at the negotiations noted that the delegate from China, whose premier declined to attend in person, insisted that the 2020 target peak for carbon emissions as well as the 80 percent by 2050 reduction target for industrialized nations be removed from the language of the draft.

China also expressed resistance to a system of international verification for emissions reductions.

In the wake of the talks, the price of carbon allowances in the E.U. dropped 8.7 percent, largely as a result of the lack of binding emissions caps.

Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear and coal industries remain in a state of limbo. A decisive action at Copenhagen would have fueled the passage of comprehensive climate change legislation in the U.S. However, as long as there is no price set on carbon emissions, coal operations remain profitable and nuclear projects continue to look dauntingly expensive.

Return to January 2010 Western Energy News

To sponsor Western Energy News, please contact WEI at 503 231-1994.