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Saturday, December 19, 2009

So basically, it's a "feel good" deal

COPENHAGEN – Two years of laborious negotiations on a climate agreement ended with a political deal brokered by President Barack Obama with China and other emerging powers but denounced by poor countries because it was nonbinding and set no overall target for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

But a final session of climate conference delegates that lasted through the night cast doubt early Saturday on whether the president of the conference, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, could declare the Copenhagen Accord approved.

Several countries, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Sudan said the document is unacceptable because it lacks targets for reducing carbon emissions.

Sudan's delegate Lumumba Di-Aping said it would condemn Africa to widespread deaths from global warming and compared it to the Holocaust. His statement was denounced by other delegations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a leading proponent of strong action to confront global warming, gave the Copenhagen Accord grudging acceptance but said she had "mixed feelings" about the outcome and called it only a first step.

Obama's day of frenetic diplomacy produced a three-page document promising $30 billion in emergency aid in the next three years and a goal of channeling $100 billion a year by 2020 to developing countries with no guarantees.

Bangladeshi delegate Quamrul Islam Chowdhari said Obama had won over many of the leaders by personally phoning them in the weeks before the summit and "making them feel important."

2 comments:

  1. Sudan's delegate Lumumba Di-Aping

    I couldn't top that. This shit writes itself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bless his heart... Obama will throw the ever popular and world famous "taxpayer dollars" at the problem! Nothing the Dems like better than throwing the American Dollar at a problem... yep, just keep throwing 'em... they print 'em every day fellas!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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