Accord to end climate discord

After intense bickering over 12 days and a last-minute call for consensus by world leaders, the Copenhagen climate summit sought to reach global agreement over a draft “political statement” termed by climate activists as “not enough to save the planet”. Chetan Chauhan and Samar Halarnkar report. Summing up the summit | Read confidential UN report | Full coverage | Listen to podcast | Proposed political statement at COP 15

After intense bickering over 12 days and a last-minute call for consensus by world leaders, the Copenhagen climate summit sought to reach global agreement over a draft “political statement” termed by climate activists as “not enough to save the planet”.

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It aims at a 2 degrees Celsius limit to global warming by reducing emissions 50 per cent by 2050, a global emission peaking year (without specifying the year) and $130 billion (Rs 6.1 trillion) for mitigation and adaptation by 2020, and the resolution of differences on the Kyoto Protocol and the long-term cooperative action by 2010 in Mexico.

Dubbed as the Copenhagen Accord, the draft statement makes it binding on countries to list their targets — emissions reduction for rich nations and domestic mitigation for developing countries — thereby making compliance mandatory.

But there is no penalty clause for nations failing to meet commitments.

The $130 billion fund Copenhagen Climate Fund—with contribution from the public and private sectors—is aimed at helping poor nations fight climate change, clean technology transfer and reducing emissions from forestry and related sectors.

Till the time of going to press, the negotiators were working on the fine print of the accord.

US President Barack Obama was in the thick of the talks with back-to-back meetings. He invited Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for another bilateral meeting to discuss outstanding issues on a UN climate change agreement, the White House said in a statement.

The final scheduled day of talks was marked by a leaked United Nations (UN) document, which implied that the world would have to look to Mexico next year to make any meaningful progress on global warming.

The document said the draft pact would most likely fail in its attempt to stem warming, threatening the vulnerable with catastrophe as temperatures rise 3 degrees Celsius by 2050. This could lead to the inundation of coastal cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New York, Cairo and London, destroy the Amazonian rain forests, desertify vast tracts of land and wipe out most of the world’s small island nations, the UN report said.

For progress in Mexico, widely divergent views will need to be aligned in the next few months.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talked about “commitment” to the Kyoto Protocol and were dismissive of efforts to replace it with a “weaker instrument.”