The Real Tragedy of Copenhagen

The Copenhagen Accord drawn up after the UN climate conference in December is only three pages long. What is left out is probably more important than what it contains. The so-called deal, which the governments only "took note of" and was not adopted, does not mention any figures for emission reduction that the developed countries are to undertake after 2012. However, the larger failure was that while Copenhagen should have been designed as a stepping stone, and not as a final conclusion, western political leaders tried to hijack the legitimate multilateral process of negotiations that had been taking place before Copenhagen and at Copenhagen itself. What the world ended up with was a disaster of a meeting and a document.