When the Guardian, that champion of everything “green” says it, you know it was a failure.
Excerpt:
The UN climate summit reached a weak outline of a global agreement last night in Copenhagen, falling far short of what Britain and many poor countries were seeking and leaving months of tough negotiations to come.
After eight draft texts and all-day talks between 115 world leaders, it was left to Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to broker a political agreement. The so-called Copenhagen accord “recognises” the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but did not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that goal.
American officials spun the deal as a “meaningful agreement”, but even Obama said: “This progress is not enough.”
“We have come a long way, but we have much further to go,” he added.
The deal was brokered between China, South Africa, India, Brazil and the US, but late last night it was still unclear whether it would be adopted by all 192 countries in the full plenary session.
The agreement aims to provide $30bn in funding for poor countries to adapt to climate change from next year to 2012, and $100bn a year after 2020.
But it disappointed African and other vulnerable countries who had been holding out for far deeper emission cuts to hold the global temperature rise to 1.5C this century. As widely expected, all references to 1.5C in previous drafts were removed at the last minute, but more surprisingly, the earlier 2050 goal of reducing global CO2 emissions by 80% was also dropped.
The agreement also set up a forestry deal which is hoped would significantly reduce deforestation in return for cash. It lacked the kind of independent verification of emission reductions by developing countries that the US and others demanded.
Obama hinted that China was to blame for the lack of a substantial deal. In a press conference he condemned the insistence of some countries to look backwards to previous environmental agreements. He said developing countries should be “getting out of that mindset, and moving towards the position where everybody recognises that we all need to move together”.
Read entire story at the Guardian here
===========================
Now compare what the Guardian has written, to what Obama says:
===========================
My summary of the Copenhagen Climate Conference is just a bit less wordy.
kmye (19:09:38) :
Good God! I certainly hope not! For reasons outlined in my other post. Is China one of the ‘developing’ nations? I thought that surely they would be off of that list by now?!
Obama pulls off a “coup d’Etat against the UN” !
This was supposed to be the conclusion of a two year process – but evidently many are far from happy with the last minute facing saving agreement – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8421935.stm
Richard Black was scathing of it last night on Radio 4, here is what he says now:
===============
BBC News environment correspondent
President Obama may have a deal with Brazil, China, India and South Africa – but it is not at all clear that he has a deal with anyone else.
While the White House was announcing the agreement, most other delegations had not even seen it.
This has clearly annoyed a number of countries who, when the agreement document, expressed their distaste in vigorous language – a “coup d’Etat against the UN”.
With no firm target for limiting the global temperature rise, no commitment to a legal treaty and no target year for peaking emissions, countries vulnerable to climate impacts are pointing out this “deal” does not guarantee the temperature targets they need.
================
We are governed by idiots, whose only ability is to spend money they don’t have. http://www.usdebtclock.org
FEED THE WORLD
It is a travesty that we have lost sight of this….
Merry Christmas
[REPLY – Billions for food. But not one red cent for tribute!]
delegates are leaving in droves, looking tired and depressed
Tired from the fun packed week they just had at $1000.00 a night hotels with all the amenities of a conference (everything, etc….) that wore them out, depressed because it’s over and they have to go back to their stinking lives.
Couldn’t agree with you more Michael. I have only really started to study weather in the last eighteen months but have probably learnt more that when I was at school. I was one that had given up my passport and wasn’t going to fly anywhere but the more I have read and learnt has changed that.
THank you for a great website
Just one thing I noticed. There was more effort and urgency when Hilary Clinton turned up and seemed to push far harder. Did the democrats pick the wrong person to lead them.
Obama has run away as he would freeze waiting for the group photo that normally is taken at these events
The show isn’t over until Fat Al sings “Its over” like he did when he decided he really didn’t want to be president.
Look who was taking the notes (Macavity), no wonder they failed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6841696/Copenhagen-climate-summit-meaningful-agreement-hailed-by-leaders.html
Cheering news … in Phil Jones’ words.
Anybody still want to go on about “world government?”
Or can we put that one to bed for now?
all this does is funnel money pointlessly from the US (primarily) to countries run by dictators, military gangs and terrorists. This isn’t something to be celebrating…Copenhagen may have “failed” but it certainly didn’t fail to move us closer to the end of freedom in the west.
“Obama flew in on the last day to save Copenhagen. He was the ace up the sleeve. An ace didn’t give them a win.”
An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Lord Monkton has a very different take on it.
I find these word comforting on most similar occasions.
Dr. Johnson (1709 – 1784), supplied these lines (and two more) for ‘The Traveller’ by Oliver Goldsmith
‘How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!’
I was about to comment on Arctic Ice but TokyoBoy said it before me so I’ll say this. What a thoughtful comment by Dane Skold! What I love about this blog is the High calibre company I find myself in: Paul Vaughan, Lucy Skywalker, Tallman, Pamela Gray and Anna V, Crosspatch, Bulldust et al .
Thank you Anthony and moderators for providing an outstanding website for intellectual engagement centred on the science of climate change and opening out into political, philosophical and economic issues that are part of the context. Not to mention abounding good humour and wit.
Now that Brokenhagen is over, the incredible recent propaganda push the and deluge of absurdly alarmist papers in the scientific journals should wind down. Their intent was to push Copenhagen over the top. I guess the torrent will continue for another four months, but once it sinks in that their gigantic wealth transfer isn’t in the cards, there should be a willingness to say, “Well, maybe it won’t be all that bad,” or “Maybe there are adaptation strategies we could pursue.”
There is a great article in the current Wired about safe, low-waste, cheap sodium/thorium nuclear reactors. Maybe we could make a push in that direction.
Two other major initiatives Obama could seize upon to salvage something from this fiasco are described in the book, Prescription for the Planet, which an amazon reviewer describes thusly:
“Transportation problems can be solved by burning boron as fuel (a 100% recyclable resource) and the waste problem inevitably caused by exponential growth can be at least partially solved by fully recycling all waste in plasma converters, which themselves can provide both significant power (the heat from these converters can turn a turbine to generate electricity) and important products.”
Here’s the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Prescription-Planet-Painless-Remedy-Environmental/dp/1419655825/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236568501&sr=1-1
A wonderful blog session on thehill.com –
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/72955-the-big-question-will-obama-get-a-climate-deal-in-copenhagen
Great comments by Will Happer and others.
Over at http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/ under “Controlling the money” by Richard North is one explanation of how CO2 taxes are spent by the EU. Extract below
“This is the $4.14 billion 4GW Mundra power project in India’s Gujarat State, being developed by Coastal Gujarat Power Limited. But it will come as no surprise to readers to learn that the Coastal Gujarat Power Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power Limited, which it acquired in April 2007.
Thus, while our masters in the EU are closing down our existing coal plants, and no new plants are being permitted unless fitted – at enormous expense – for carbon capture, money from the long-suffering taxpayers of the UK and the rest of the developed world are being used to subsidise the building of a plant that will emit 25.7 million tons of CO2 per year for at least 25 years, adding another 643 million tons to an atmospheric carbon load.
And the ultimate irony is – actually, it is beyond irony – is that the plant will qualify for the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism “carbon credits” which can then be sold on the carbon market, which UK generators will need to buy in order to continue producing electricity and keep the lights burning.
Approved by the World Bank on 8 April last year, the project is being part-funded by the Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), with an “A Loan” of up to $450 million, plus an investment of $50 million in equity. This was followed on 25 April by another loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), amounting to $450 million, both loans being on preferential terms because of their “green” development status.
What gives the project its “green” status – and thus permits World Bank and ADB funding – is that it employs what is known as “super-critical” technology. This – in theory at least – improves the conversion efficiency (of fuel to electric power) to some 44 percent compared with only 34-36 percent for conventional coal-fired power plants.
Piling irony on irony, this is exactly the type of power station which E.ON wanted to build at Kingsnorth in Kent, to which the greenies objected so much, even though future provision was to be made for carbon capture and carbon credits had to be bought to permit the plant to run.
Yet, in India, this is the seventh such plant to be built (or in the planning), justified as “green” because the type reduces the average carbon emissions of India’s electricity generation system as a whole, per unit of electricity supplied. Nevertheless, this plant will not actually reduce total emissions. It will provide new capacity to a region short of electricity, so overall emissions will increase. Only the intensity of emissions will decrease.”
I forecast that in 700 days, after a poor summer in 2010 and an even colder winter 2010/11, N H humans will have turned on their CO2 espousing politicians with a vengeance. Remember Ceauşescu and his wife Elena. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C5%9Fescu#Overthrow
“The Ceauşescus were executed by a firing squad consisting of elite paratroop regiment soldiers Ionel Boeru, Dorin Cârlan and Octavian Gheorghiu, while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered. The firing squad did not wait for the Ceauşescus to be tied up and blindfolded, as is customary, but instead began shooting as soon as they appeared. The firing happened too soon for the film crew covering the events to record it. After the shooting the bodies were covered with canvas.”
Lord Monckton must have been feeling pretty knocked about since that incompetent Danish policeman knocked him out last Thursday. Even so, he kept a steady stream of posts coming on his blog yesterday and rounded it off with yet another hard hitting article this morning: http://sppiblog.org/news/parturient-montes-nascetur-ridiculus-mus#more-314.
I am sure I am not the only person here thanking him for his tireless actions over the last week and in wishing him a rapid and complete recovery.
This is what you get over at the BBC comments page:-
“Your comment will be read by a Have Your Say moderator before it is published.
Please note that due to the volume of comments that we receive, we cannot guarantee that all comments will be published.”
Sort of says it all doesn’t it?
Hear the sound or george Orwell laughing?
This battle may be won but the war still rages. Let’s not get too smug. There are powerful forces afoot and we are badly outnumbered. Lets keep pressing forward. If we lose focus they will gain the advantage. This is not a victory, it is a diversion.
The Daily Express readers showed their distrust of Mr Brown’s sweeping plans this week, with an overwhelming 98% of those taking part in a phone vote agreeing that the nation was being conned over global warming.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/146923/Alarm-as-debt-soars-by-20bn-in-a-month
Gordon Brown was yesterday accused of signing a £500billion death warrant for Britain’s economy in his desperate quest for a climate change deal. Ignoring the dire state of the country’s finances, such as the record Government borrowing figures of $20.3billion last month, Mr Brown has already pledged to hand over £7.5billion to an international fund to help poorer countries “cope with climate change”.
You can vote if you think Gordon Brown is doing a good job or not
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=B5X1UiIgsS429KITJjQeh24jYDKaVxXD07YXgEMCNtwHw4JYBEAEYASC7r-AMKAI4AFDFs6Kq-P____8BYLu-roPQCqABjsLc9gOyARZ3d3cuZGFpbHlleHByZXNzLmNvLnVrugEJNDY4eDYwX2FzyAEB2gEvaHR0cDovL3d3dy5kYWlseWV4cHJlc3MuY28udWsvcG9zdHMvdmlldy8xNDY5MjKAAgGpAsinoR_Lca8-yALMwMEEqAMByAMH6AOYA-gDugP1AwABAET1AyAAAAA&num=1&sig=AGiWqtxh6a-d1hZwoWdLAzBQ17Ls5iLIbw&client=ca-pub-7663259432931645&adurl=http://rm.springboarduk.com/LP/f0fcc1a9fb0b4ef885622467c1d4dd44/a.aspx%3Frm_state%3Db%24f023c23acdbe439381cfb6fe17ffd646%7Ce%240%7Cl%240%7Cu%24%26utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3De%26utm_campaign%3Dlp1UK&nm=5
geo (21:41:11) :
Y’know, this isn’t a bad result all things considered. I’m not against insurance policies. . .I just don’t want to pay unreasonable prices for them. This Term Insurance can be terminated before it gets too costly, if further research and observable facts seem to make that advisable.
A friend of mine lives in a town which is one of the highest point above sea level in Ohio. As a matter of fact she lives on one of the highest point in that town. In order for her receive a federal back mortgage, she had to agree to pay for flood insurance. It’s not much, only about $180.00 per year for 30 years. Over time as the government needed more money to cover the cost of national flood insurance, the army corp of engineers have included more and more land in flood areas. This not insurance. This is theft by the government.
savethesharks (22:01:53) :
From the Telegraph:
” ‘Most of the snow is falling in East Anglia,….’ she said.”
This one satisfies me. I’ll go to bed happy.
“East Anglia????
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
FWIW: I just read that, back in the day, East Anglia was the headquarters of the Pilgrim / Puritan movement.