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Climate Meet at Copenhagen
K S VENKATARAMANDelegates from 192 countries had two weeks to broker a globe-saving treaty ata crucial climate conference that opened on December 7, 2009 in Copenhagen.Denmark's Prime Minister
Lars Lokke Rasmussen
said
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, at the openingceremony in Copenhagen "Global warming knows no borders, it does notdiscriminate, it affects us all and we are here today because we are allcommitted to take action."Representatives of 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a Dec.7-18 meeting intended to find a deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which runsout in 2012. Officials hoped the deal would include binding carbon dioxideemissions reduction commitments from the world's major emitters, including theUnited States, India and China; as well as dozens of billions of dollars in financialaid to poor nations ill-equipped to deal with a problem they did least to create.Former US Vice-President
Al Gore
hadtold
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POLITICO in an interview earlier,had pointed out that it was important atCopenhagen to have a binding politicalagreement that both developed anddeveloping countries sign on to, andcountries like India and China willing toact on climate change.
Hurdles Crossed
There were deal-busters and deal-makers and the proceedings went on withalternating hope and despair.There were varied opinions about the significance of the summit meet. Not allwere well wishers of the global exercise.
 
James Hansen
, one of the world's mostrespected climate scientists, had told
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British daily The Guardian, "The wholeapproach is so fundamentally wrong that itis better to reassess the situation. If it isgoing to be the Kyoto-type thing then(people) will spend years trying todetermine exactly what that means… Iwould rather it not happen if people acceptthat as being the right track because it's a disaster track." Hansen heads theNASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.Hansen, who has been one of the most outspoken scientists when it comes towarning politicians of the dangers related to man-made climate change, isvehemently opposed to the carbon markets proposed as a new trading schemeto introduce a clean economy.Hansen had said, "This is analogous to the indulgences that the Catholic Churchsold in the Middle Ages. The bishops collected lots of money and the sinners gotredemption. Both parties liked that arrangement despite its absurdity. We've gotthe developed countries who want to continue more or less business as usualand then the developing countries, who want money and that is, what they canget through offsets sold through the carbon markets.” He had also been critical of world leaders, who were treating the issue like anyother diplomatic conflict. For Hansen, it was much more than that; and thatmeant there was no room for horse-trading.
In the first week itself,
Africa led a boycott by developing nations of workinggroups; returned only after securing guarantees the summit would not sidelinetalks about the future of the Kyoto Protocol. The walkout delivered another blowto the summit, which had already been marred by spats between China and theUnited States.
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The US Representative
James Sensenbrenner
, who headed the RepublicanHouse delegation to Copenhagen, had said that Obama should "lower therhetoric" on what the United States will do under the next global agreement. Hehad added, "America lost a lot of credibility when then-vice president Al Gore
 
promised the international community in Kyoto something that he knew couldnever be passed by the Congress. I would hope that President Obama will notrepeat Al Gore's mistake."There were also campaigners who were even vociferous and blunter. Greenpeacehad urged that the summit had five days "to avert climate chaos". The grouphad observed, “Emissions targets so far offered by Western leaders such asObama amounted to peanuts."In the meantime the stakes were underlined by a new UN report, which said thatsome 58 million people had been affected by 245 natural calamities this year,more than 90 percent of them weather events amplified by climate change.There was an unsubstantiated allegation that the Danish hosts were trying tosideline the concerns of the developing countries. There were wrangles over thetexts on which the talks were to be based.
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A dispute arose leading to a hold-up.Formal negotiations have reopened at the UN climate summit in Copenhagenafter a delay of nine hours.China rejected American calls for its emissions to be independently monitored,and was also resisting plans for a worldwide agreement to halve emissions by2050.
Some Accord
The Nobel laureate and last leader of theSoviet Union,
Mikhail Gorbachev
hadsaid in an interview on December 3, 2009had said
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, "The 'business-as-usual' mindsetand incremental approach that dominatesthe world thinking today is the source of our multiple crises -- economic, financialand environmental. He had pointed out,"We are currently in a genuine globalemergency that requires a new way of thinking."Such strong opinions did not go waste. Some silver linings too emerged. At thefag end of the summit, on the morning of December 18, 2009 leaders and
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