World waits until end of 2010 for practical climate change response
January 7th, 2010
By Alan Osborn and Mitch Vandenborn, International News Services
While many had hoped December's
Copenhagen Conference would be the necessary first step in the global fight against
climate change, in the wake of the signed partial accord, we are left with many more questions than answers. Now, 2010 is the new deadline for whether the world can agree a practical response to the dangers of
global warming.
The near-universal chorus of dismay and anger in the western media that followed the conclusions of the climate change summit at least partly reflected the wildly unrealistic expectations of the world’s richer countries. The pre-summit hype had been enormous. You would have thought Copenhagen was to have been the scene of the Second Coming.
Instead we got a modest text drawn up and agreed to by some 25 heads of state with the important gap filling left to future meetings. Essentially the deal “recognises” the need to limit global temperatures to a rise of no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but offers no language committing the signatories to specific action. Under the accord, developed countries, including the United States will outline targets for up to 2020 by January 31.
Major emerging economies including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa, plus some other developing countries, said they would by that day lodge (weaker) voluntary pledges to decouple economic growth from emissions increases. These countries have also promised to declare how they are tackling emissions every two years henceforth. Whether these commitments will be honoured remains to be seen however.
It is hardly surprising that the
European Commission thought the result “disappointing,” while the NGOs in the environment sector, and much of the
European news media, were practically incandescent with frustration. While nobody escaped the blame altogether, there was a lot of agreement the single
biggest stumbling block was China and its refusal to open its carbon reduction actions up to inspection by the rest of the world.
It was a different story altogether on the other side of the world. China said the summit had been “a great success” and “a triumph of democracy.” It credited itself with having played a “constructive” role. India boasted of how it had fought off attempts by the West to impose binding carbon reduction targets.There is a crucial message here. China and India have begun to assert themselves on the world stage. Their economic strength has been evident for
many years.
Now they are flexing their political muscles, essentially challenging the West’s assumption of world leadership in the environmental field as they have done in the economic department. This is not being achieved without some rancor. There were unsettling flashes of ill will at Copenhagen, notably between the Americans and the Chinese. We can expect more of them. China is telling the rest of the world that its near-10% growth rates of recent years will not be compromised by a deal on emissions.
Whether this reflects Chinese indifference to what the rest of the world thinks or whether
Beijing believes it has a plan to maintain its growth rates and at the same time clean up its environment is not yet clear. But the US and the
European Union (EU) have been warned that their long-held unchallenged leadership in all kinds of global affairs is coming to an end.
