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Copenhagen climate summit ends with a deal

By Nava Thakuria |

The world witnessed for almost two weeks how the negotiations went on during the UN global climate conference in the freezing cold Danish capital. The conference, the biggest in the history of mankind for the cause of environment, witnessed the participation of over 130 heads of government and states from around the globe, where every one initially remarked that the summit must not be failed.


But the latest series of negotiation and discussion proved that the division between the developed and developing remained intact. The repeated opposition and adjournment of the meetings delayed the acceptance of the resolutions. The summit, which was supposed to get concluded by Friday night, continued till Saturday evening.


In fact, the US President Barack Obama planned to return home soon after the agreement signed in Copenhagen, but he had to stay for longer period in the city to continue pursuing with different government heads. Even Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too got delayed because of the continued discussion during Friday midnight. Finally Obama initiated for a break though of the conference, where he convinced BASIC countries namely India, China, Brazil and South Africa to give approval for an agreement.


An hour-long meeting during the night among the US President with the Indian Prime Minister, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Brazilian President Lula Da Silva and South African President Jacob Zuma had resulted in a US-BASIC deal, where all parties agreed to take appropriate actions to prevent the global warming exceeding the level of 2 degree Celsius. Moreover, all the government heads of BASIC and the US had ensued for $30 billion as aid to the poor and developing nations in the next three years. It has also agreed to support the US proposed global fund of $100 billion a year by 2020.
Of course, not every one was happy with the deal. There were opposition from various other developing nations, where they argue that they can not ‘accept a text originally agreed by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa as the blueprint of a wider United Nations plan’ to fight climate change.It was opposed by Cuba, Sudan, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, Tuvalu, Costa Rica etc, where as the host country also showed reservation to the deal. The Danish Prime Minister and also COP15 president Lars Løkke Rasmussen said that he was not in favour of the proposal. However Japan, Norway, African nations and also the European Union nations came out with support for the proposal.


The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed the deal as a beginning was acceptable to him. He admitted that ‘it was not an easy task’ and asserted that the Copenhagen climate deal offers hope. German Chanellor Angela Merkel also agreed on the proposal but said she ‘expected more’.The Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh expressed happiness that a good deal for the entire developing world was resolved in the Copenhagen summit.
Someway happy notes were aired by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also when termed the exercise as an important beginning. He admitted that it was not satisfactory to a number of delegates as the deal ‘may not be everything everyone had hoped for’. But he firmly commented that finally ‘we have a deal in Copenhagen’, which has an immediate operational effect.

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Senior journalist based in Guwahati.
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