‘Hopenhagen’ Suicide Pact

‘Hopenhagen’ failed to live up to the pre-conference hype to safeguard the generations of tomorrow. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the fruit of the 1992 Rio summit that convened in Copenhagen in December 2009, hosted 192 nations, joined by Iraq and Somalia ─ one of the largest gathering of world leaders in history ─ with the misplaced hope that a treaty that will protect future generations will be signed. Instead, what was signed was a weak farcical face-saving global suicide pact in order to avoid a complete embarrassing global political collapse. More empty promises by empty political suits.

A non-binding agreement that does not spell out any global emission targets for 2020 or 2050, or set a deadline for transforming the objectives outlined in the accord into a legally binding treaty. All the signatories agreed to was to “take note” of the agreement. “Take note?” They must be kidding. If not, if that is the best they can come up with, it is nothing short of a complete collapse of global political will and leadership that humanity can ill afford.

The lack of sincerity, political grand standing by irresponsible delegates walking out of chaotic meetings and accusatory inflammatory rhetoric, confirmed yet again the U.N.’s incompetence and irrelevance in the new world order. The lack of basic common sense of what must be done today in the scorching glaring face of the apocalyptic fate the world faces because of climate change is beyond comprehension.

China likened rich countries refusal to help poor ones pay for the transition to cleaner economies, with “short-term financial aid” leading to the gradual establishment of “long-term support mechanism,” to people eating at a fancy restaurant who are joined for dessert by a poor friend and then demand he pay a share of the cost of the entire meal.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only legally binding emissions-curbing treaty, which America did not sign, required rich nations’ emissions to be cut by around five percent from 1990 levels by 2008, but not surprisingly, failed to achieve.

More political hot air was emitted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who after his dismal performance in Copenhagen, dared promise that a legally binding treaty on climate change will be reached in 2010. Not if the U.N. is running the show again.

The U.N. must be taken out of the climate change equation if a treaty that replaces Kyoto is to be signed in 2012. A new environmental organization with political clout and effectiveness headed up by the U.S. and China, together with a manageable group of representatives from the various environmental constituencies represented is long overdue. No more global summits that create more carbon emissions than they reduce.