The clock is ticking and there are now less than 20 days to go before the world leaders gather in Copenhagen. When the great and the good gather in the Danish capital much of the focus will be on the two CO2 heavyweights – USA and China – to judge what side of the fence they are sitting.
In a pre-cursor to the conference the two respective leaders Barack Obama and Hu Jintao – have met this week to set some ground rules for the debates to follow. According to Hu the two sides reached broad, important agreement. Apparently the talks were candid, constructive, and very fruitful. He also noted that the two countries would work with other parties concerned to help produce positive outcomes out of the Copenhagen conference.
For his part Obama stated that the two parties agreed to work toward a successful outcome in Copenhagen. Their aim is not a partial accord or a political declaration, but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect. This kind of comprehensive agreement would be an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution to our climate challenge.
Obama added that both countries agreed that each of them "would take significant mitigation actions and stand behind these commitments". But in spite of the positive language about aiming for a comprehensive deal, the statements have not gone down well in the world media.
They leave a lot of room for different interpretations, ranging from a real ambitious climate rescue deal to another meaningless declaration. The real test will still come at Copenhagen.
Others interpret the statements of Obama and Hu as signs of the positive developments that have taken place the last year. If you think about where we were both nationally and internationally just a year ago or two years ago versus where we are today, we're talking now about concrete steps where both countries recognise climate change issues, both countries want to work in this direction and want to help each other.
There will be no way of telling how this scenario will play out until the joint statements on December 18th, but until that time the rest of the world will be hoping that actions will match the positive rhetoric.
Categories: ,
Comments
All comments
You need to be registered with the IET to leave a comment. Please log in or register as a new user.