|
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 December 2009 21.10 GMT India With India involved in the last minute negotiations that produced the
compromise accord, its environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, called it "a
good deal and satisfactory solution". But another parliamentary
delegate, Sitaram Yechury, complained that the final draft was "well
short of expectations".
The Hindu newspaper called it an "important beginning" but noted that it
contained few specific figures, commitments or timelines. The Hindustan
Times felt that "without a legally binding document, the summit turned
into a damp squib". The Mail Today concluded that "something is better
than nothing", even if trying to get so many countries to agree on
anything would strike many as "an exercise in futility". But
environmental groups were critical of the Indian government's
performance. "This has been a shirking of global responsibility by India
and a weak outcome has so far emerged from the UN climate talks,"
Greenpeace India complained. One unexpected positive was that relations
with China – strained by border and visa disputes – appear to have
warmed slightly. Russia Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, said the summit had achieved "quite
modest" results. His aides, however, blasted the two-week UN conference
as "one of the most poorly organised top-level events ever". Greenpeace
Russia dismissed it as "ignominious" and "futile". Medvedev said: "Ultimately we managed to compile a statement that
reflects various countries' perceptions of how to continue improving the
work on making the environmental situation on the planet better and
preventing unfavourable influences on climate." Despite Russian scepticism about climate change, he had arrived
promising $200m to a multibillion fund to help poor countries reduce
their carbon output. He also said Russia, the world's third largest
emitter, was ready to cut emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 – if
the US, China and others followed suit. The collapse of the Soviet Union
saw emissions fall by about 30%. Germany Angela Merkel's commitment to the environment once earned her the media
moniker of "climate chancellor". But her return from Copenhagen has met
with accusations that she betrayed her principles. "She made minimal
offers which turned out to be a flop. She did not put Germany on the
frontline," said Claudia Roth, head of the Green party, labelling the
talks a "tragedy". Merkel, while owning up to "mixed feelings", told
Bild am Sonntag that Copenhagen had been "a first step towards a new
world climate order. No more, but also no less," she said. However, her
measured optimism was drowned out. "The world was watching Copenhagen.
The world has been sorely disappointed," said Hubert Weiger, head of
Germany's association for environment and nature protection, Bund. Sigmar Gabriel, former environment minister and chairman of the
opposition SPD party, described the summit as a "catastrophe. The way
state and government heads have put at risk the future of their own
children and grandchildren is a disgrace." One other leader singled out for particular criticism was Barack Obama.
"It may have been Hollywood, but what we saw was a bad film," remarked
Roth. "It was not enough just to come, put nothing on the table and then
go away again and criticise the conference." France Before he jetted into Copenhagen last week, Nicolas Sarkozy publicly
warned that "failure would be catastrophic". But the French president
emerged from the talks chastened. "It is not perfect," he told
journalists, "[but] it is the best possible agreement". His ecology
minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, insisted "absolute disaster" had been
averted. That, though, was not the consensus among France's green
activists or opposition leaders. Nicolas Hulot, the popular ecologist,
told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper: "We have sold off our children's
future and compromised that of millions of citizens." Blame for the
"fiasco" focused chiefly on Beijing and the US. "But Europe also sinned
in its disunity and absence of leadership," said Djamila Sonzogni, for
the French Green party. The result, she added, was "as desperate as the
stakes were high". The media verdict media was unanimous. An editorial in Le Monde was
entitled simply: "A disappointment." "China is at the heart of Copenhagen's failure," it said. South Africa South Africa may have been one of the five countries to broker the
Copenhagen accord, but there was little enthusiasm for the deal back
home. "The Hopelesshagen Flop" was the front-page headline in the Sunday
Independent, and opposition politicians and environmental activists were
critical. President Jacob Zuma had talked on Friday about how climate
change was already "wreaking havoc on the lives of our people [in
coastal provinces of South Africa]". He called for ambitious cuts in
rich country emissions, and said poorer countries emissions should be
permitted to increase – a position shared by the G77 developing
countries. But the Sunday Independent said Zuma subsequently aligned
himself with "Obama's deal", which it described as "no deal at all for
those who are going to be worst affected by the devastating effects of
climate change". Reporting: Gethin Chamberlain, Luke Harding, Lizzie Davies, Xan Rice
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites  |
