During the night, the developing countries had criticised the draft accord. The island state of Tuvalu was the first to announce that it would not accept the accord, which had been negotiated by a small group.
The country is condemned to vanish if the target of two degrees were to be retained. The representatives of Bolivia and Venezuela were harshly critical of the way the Danish presidency had led the negotiations.
Mixed feelings
Chancellor Angela Merkel summed up immediately after the consultations involving 25 nations. Even these negotiations in a smaller but representative group proved extremely difficult. "It was very hard work,” Angela Merkel reported. "Many times we found ourselves teetering on the brink of failure.” The decision to pursue negotiations in this smaller group was not an easy one for the Chancellor. "We faced the option of abandoning the process or carrying on,” she explained. The work of the smaller group is not intended to replace the work of the two UN working groups.
The Chancellor saw the results too with mixed feelings. While a general agreement was reached on the two-degree target, which "is more than we could have envisaged even one year ago”, the obligations laid out in the paper are not yet enough to make any real impact on reducing global warming by the middle of the century, she acknowledged. This is why the EU has stuck to its pledge to cut its own emissions by as much as 30 percent by 2020 if other states too do their bit.
"We have taken one step forward, but I had hoped for more than one step,” as the Chancellor put it.
Constructive role of industrialised states
The fact that any agreement at all was reached was thanks to the offers made by the industrialised states and in particular of the European Union in the run-up to the conference, in the view of the Chancellor. Their pledges to shoulder part of the cost of climate change mitigation measures played an important part. "I am convinced that the entire process of climate protection is unthinkable without the Europeans,” underscored Angela Merkel.
Little scope for action
Photo: REGIERUNGonline/Kugler
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy seek solutionsThe first progress was only made in even smaller groups, which identified the shared interests of the African Union, the United States of America and the European Union.China barely budged at all from its position in the course of negotiations. The country’s declaration that it is willing to become involved in climate protection is, however, in itself new. The country also made concessions with respect to review measures, according to Angela Merkel. China was not prepared to change its stance on reduction targets and targets to improve its energy efficiency though, she reported. The USA too failed to bring any new substance to Copenhagen.
Negotiations were also extremely tough on the issue of the legally binding nature of the new climate accord. The emerging economies were not willing to accept legal obligations. On the other hand the Americans would have rejected any agreement that failed to involve the emerging economies in the political accord.
Members of the smaller group
25 states, selected because they were representative of all regions of the world and with differing economic strength, drew up a draft and polished the paper further in bilateral talks. The industrialised nations represented were the USA, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. The emerging economies were represented by China, India, Brazil and Mexico, while Grenada negotiated on behalf of island states. The G77 were represented by Sudan, Ethiopia and Algeria, to name but three.
Salient points of the paper:
Emissions of greenhouse gases: The paper contains the general commitment to keep global warming down to no more than two degrees Celsius. Germany has always said that this was the precondition for an accord. Industrialised countries and emerging economies will register their national reduction targets by 1 February 2010.
Monitoring: Countries are to list the measures they intend to take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a certain volume. A verification method must be agreed at international level.
Financing: By 2012 the industrialised states are to contribute a total of 30 billion dollars to help poorer states adopt cleaner energy and cope with the consequences of climate change, such as droughts and flooding. By 2020 an annual total of 100 billion dollars is to be raised, depending on the extent of the reduction measures taken and the transparency thereof.
The paper also provided for a review of implementation by the end of 2015.
