The Controversial Copenhagen Climate Summit
Written by: Admin
Almost two weeks of intense debates between more than 190 countries at the Copenhagen Climate Summit produced an accord to reduce less than 2 degrees for global warming and pledged $30 billion in aid for adaptation and other climate-related needs for developing countries. While Mr. Obama called the agreement “unprecedented”, the lack of legal binding on the agreement disappointed many observers.
The Copenhagen Climate Summit began with a bang as thousands of officials, environmental enthusiasts, protesters, and media gathered to witness the first global treaty on the climate change issue. However, as rich and developing countries blamed each other on the issue of greenhouse gases emissions, the event started to derail.
After the end of high drama, the last minute change of word proposed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a group of international lawyers allowed negotiators to unanimously accept the pact. The agreement offers options for countries to join the pact after they have studied the provisions and is comfortable with them.
In addition, developed countries pledge total of $30 billion in aid to encourage developed countries to reduce greenhouse gases. Surprisingly, Japan leads in the aid package by pledging $11 billion. The United States will contribute $3.6 billion and European Union will contribute $10.6 billion.
May be the climate summit has reached its climax, but it is just the beginning. Secretary Ben rightly said that the pact “is an essential beginning. It lays the foundation for the first truly global agreement” on climate.”
Source: csmonitor
