OPPORTUNITY MISSED?

In a game, there are winners and losers. The climate change conference which ended last week was definitely not a game, with the future of mankind at stake; yet the two-week talks made little progress, leaving too many losers.
There were high expectations from the conference amid the world’s worsening global warming. It had at least two years to prepare a legally binding treaty requiring deeper emissions cuts by developed nations, the deadline set at the  similar United Nations  talks in Bali two years ago.
The deadline was crucial to give enough time for the new treaty to become operational and succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the first commitment phase of which expires in 2012, and which only requires modest emissions cuts from 37 rich countries.
It was this goal which made the Copenhagen talks the biggest in history. It was this goal which made more than 45,000 people flock to the Bella Center,  the conference venue. It was also this goal which made 119 heads of states and governments brave the snow. All wanted to be a part of history.
But marathon negotiations, which lasted until early morning on the last days, and  even an extension for another day,  still failed to break the ice. Instead of coming out with a deal which allowed them to act together as one in the face of common threats of  climate change, they split apart.
The result of the Copenhagen negotiations does not even come close to the minimum expectations.
The three-page accord is not one that is legally binding or pins down industrialized countries to targets. The accord sets no deadline for reaching a formal international treaty. The conference only approved a decision “to take note” of the accord, not formally approve it.
The accord set a target to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius but did not provide details on how to achieve this. It seemed as if the accord was reduced to saving face, to spare world leaders hoping for a legally binding agreement from returning home empty-handed.
It did agree, however, on the need for large-scale finance, such as the provision of fast-start financing worth US$30 billion in 2010-2012 to support adaptation and mitigation action in developing countries, to protect forests and put their economies on a low-carbon pathway. It also set a “goal” of mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 for the same purposes.
But money is not the only way out. Acting together is better, and produces greater impact, than acting alone.
Now that the Copenhagen talks are over,  the loss of a legally binding deal made the conference a huge missed opportunity.