Notwithstanding attempts to talk up the "deal" said to have been done in Durban at the UN Climate Change Conference, any objective analysis must conclude that nothing really effective has been achieved at the talk fest. Truthdig puts it this way:
The Guardian reports on the to-ing and fro-ing here, and concludes the piece thus:
"Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, said: "Delaying real action till 2020 is a crime of global proportions.
"This means the world is on track to a 4C temperature rise, a death sentence for Africa, small island states and the poor and vulnerable worldwide. The richest 1% of the world have decided that it is acceptable to sacrifice the 99%."
"Another round of climate negotiations, another vague promise to commit to something in the distant future and another slow-motion step toward disaster for the world’s poor and vulnerable. The Durban deal puts the U.N.’s 194 nations on track to begin negotiating a legally binding pact by 2015, six years after we were told to expect such a treaty in Copenhagen.
After two days of deadlock, delegates salvaged the talks by changing the words “legal outcome” to the substantially more slippery “agreed outcome with legal force under the convention applicable to all parties.” That injection of hot air into a corpse of a deal was enough to bring Indian negotiator Jayanthi Natarajan back to the table to declare the process operable. The earlier language made her concerned that India would be legally bound to curtail its economic development.
Negotiators did not commit to renewing the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December 2012, and instead called for an extension until 2017 or 2020. That leaves the “real” deciding for next year’s talks in Qatar."
After two days of deadlock, delegates salvaged the talks by changing the words “legal outcome” to the substantially more slippery “agreed outcome with legal force under the convention applicable to all parties.” That injection of hot air into a corpse of a deal was enough to bring Indian negotiator Jayanthi Natarajan back to the table to declare the process operable. The earlier language made her concerned that India would be legally bound to curtail its economic development.
Negotiators did not commit to renewing the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December 2012, and instead called for an extension until 2017 or 2020. That leaves the “real” deciding for next year’s talks in Qatar."
The Guardian reports on the to-ing and fro-ing here, and concludes the piece thus:
"Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, said: "Delaying real action till 2020 is a crime of global proportions.
"This means the world is on track to a 4C temperature rise, a death sentence for Africa, small island states and the poor and vulnerable worldwide. The richest 1% of the world have decided that it is acceptable to sacrifice the 99%."
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