What did we get from Copenhagen? Nothing at all like what the world has asked for.
Speaking from Copenhagen, Greenpeace International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo put it like this:
“The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a once-in-a-generation chance to change the world for good, to avert catastrophic climate change. In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through.”
The job of world leaders is not done. We have seen a year of crises, but today it is clear that the biggest one facing humanity is a leadership crisis. Today they failed to avert catastrophic climate change.
After two weeks of meeting, following two years of negotiating, world leaders have shown that they aren’t leaders at all. They are politicians who remain shackled by short-term vested interests.
Hopes for a new climate treaty have stalled along political fault lines between north and south – rich and poor. During the year, a number developing countries showed a willingness to accept their share of the burden to avert climate chaos. But in the end, the blame for failure mostly lies with the rich industrialised world, countries which have the largest historic responsibility for causing the problem. In particular, the US failed to take any real leadership and dragged the talks down.
For Australia’s part, Kevin Rudd refused to put a credible target on the table, refused to put serious money on the table, and failed to live up to the mandate given to him by the Australian people who elected him to take serious action on climate change.
Climate science says we have only a few years left to halt the rise in emissions before making the kind of rapid reductions that would give us the best chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. We cannot change that science, so instead we will have to change the politics.
People all over the world have issued a loud and clear call for climate action – but it hasn’t been loud enough. We need to keep building the pressure from here so that politicians have no choice but to act.
Each and every one of us must hold our elected leaders to account. We must take the struggle to avert climate catastrophe into every level of politics – local, regional, national and international. We also need to take it into the boardroom and onto the high streets. We can either work for a fundamental change in our society or we will suffer the consequences of the changes thrust upon us.
Links
» “Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure”, The Guardian
