COP15 fails to seal a global climate deal

By: Paula Scheidt Manoel on January 4th, 2010

All the Danish efforts to sell Copenhagen as the city of hope were not enough to guarantee a global deal at the end of the UN Climate Change Conference, billed by many as event of the century. From ‘Hopehagen’, the city started to be called ‘Brokenhagen’ on the Friday night after a day full of closed door meetings between heads of state.

A feeling of failure swept like a wave over the Bella Center, where the Conference was held for two weeks. It started in the early hours of the morning when the first drafts of the ‘Copenhagen Accord’  began to circulate among journalists and participants.

In a day of cancelled press conferences and delayed sessions the general mood was of frustration and disappointment. Sentiments even expressed by some negotiators and heads of state to explain the final result that emerged.

The ‘Copenhagen Accord’ emerged as a political agreement built by Brazil, India, China, South Africa (the BASIC group) and the United States. The document however, failed to agree any global reduction target and is practically a revision of commitments already made by rich countries in previous months not to exceed 2 degrees centigrade in global temperature increase.

When it comes to money, the accord only creates a fast start fund of US$30 billion to help developing countries on climate change mitigation and adaptation between 2010-2012 and has a commitment between developed countries to mobilize jointly US$100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.

The last hours of Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in Copenhagen were spent in the closed meeting discussing this document, with heads of other BASIC countries joined later by the United States. After reaching a common position and thinking the work had been done at COP15, Lula left the meeting for Brazil, taking with him Minister Dilma Rousseff and chief negotiator, Luiz Figueiredo Machado.

A couple of hours later the face of President Barack Obama appeared on screens in the Bella Centre corridors saying there was finally a deal. “I believe that what we achieved here wasn’t the end, but the beginning of a new era of international cooperation,” he told a small group of American journalists in the only press conference he gave in Copenhagen.

“This deal is better than any deal. It’s a step forward, but, of course, below our ambition. I won’t hide my disappointment for it not being binding”, commented the European Union president, José Manuel Barroso. According to him, EU accepted it because it would not be good to interrupt the process.

But his thoughts were not shared by Sudanese nedotiator Lumumba Di-aping (also Chair of the G77 + China negotiating block), and other delegates from small island countries (AOSIS group) which said before the beginning of the final COP15 plenary that they could not accept the Accord.

Even with Obama practically saying that Conference had finished before he left it, the game actually had not finished yet.  The papers still needed approval by the plenary with unanimity from the 193 countries of the UN Climate Change Convention.

The plenary started at almost three on Saturday morning and the key point to be discussed was the Copenhagen Accord. It took just a few minutes for the first delegation to ask for the floor to start the revolt against this document.

“They offered us 30 pieces of silver for us to betray our people. Our future isn’t on sale. I regret to inform you, but Tuvalu can’t accept this deal”, said a delegate from Tuvalu as the plenary started showing the first sign of what would come over the following hours. In the end the Copenhagen Accord was simply ‘noted’  and failed to gain full consensus of the plenary.