Posted on: January 18, 2010

The Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen ended with an outcome that is seen universally as less than satisfactory. Two years ago the Bali COP had clearly laid down a roadmap and generated expectations that by the time the Copenhagen meeting took place the world would reach a legally binding agreement by which the challenge of climate change would be met effectively. Unfortunately, this did not come about and what we have as the outcome of that meeting is an accord by a limited number of countries, which is in no way legally binding even on those who are part of the accord. In some sense, there is, therefore, as much work to be done in arriving at an agreement as was perhaps the case a year ago. Some would even feel that we may have regressed in our efforts and the momentum that existed even a few months ago has probably been dissipated. The positives from Copenhagen can be listed as the fact that this accord lays down a limit of 2 °C as the increase in temperature that...