342The expectations placed on the Copenhagen Summit were not met Satisfied in relation to the reduction of emissions that from the scientific field is claimed not to increase the average temperature of the planet beyond a limit that would mean a climate change with disastrous and irreversible consequences.

An example: as indicated in the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, “with medium confidence, about 20-30% of species considered to date are likely to be more threatened with extinction if global average warming increases by more than 1, 5-2.5ºC (compared to the period 1980-1999) If the average global temperature were to increase by more than 3.5ºC, model projections indicate that mass extinctions could occur (between 40% and 70% of species studied) throughout the world”.

www.hopenhagen.org

The new UN Secretary for Climate Change replacing Yvo de Boer, Christiana Figueres, declared recently in an interview“we are very far from an agreement with a sufficient level of ambition. The Copenhagen Agreement establishes that the increase in temperature must be limited to two degrees. At the same time, the commitments to reduce emissions that have put on the table the 70 countries would imply a temperature increase of between 3 and 3.9 degrees, which is unacceptable and very dangerous. And even those two degrees are not enough for many small islands”.

The results of the Copenhagen Summit are far from what Europe has been demanding and has made it clear that, in the end, the economic and geopolitical interests of certain countries have been more powerful than the conclusions of the international scientific community. In addition, the lack of leadership from the European Union during the Summit was clear, since it did not even participate in the final negotiations with the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on the final draft of the Agreement.

Thus, last February the European Parliament assessed the results of COP15 as follows: “negotiations on a comprehensive international agreement on climate change for the post-Kyoto period, which were to be finalized in Copenhagen in December 2009, concluded with a disappointing deal.” And in March the European Commission declared that “the Agreement in no way fulfills the ambitions of the European Union, which intended to reach a solid, effective and legally binding agreement in Copenhagen, of which only « noted” in the conclusions of the Conference”.

And, finally, as exposed by a recent Der Spiegel report, the Copenhagen Accord was cooked up solely by China, India, South Africa and the United States.

The recordings that allow you to listen to different world political leaders in the final stages of the negotiation are curious. In the end, the Chinese representative met in a separate room with Brazil, India and South Africa, joining Obama at the last minute to forge the Copenhagen Agreement that, finally, the European Union had no choice but to accept.

PS. At the last minute they pass me this Guardian story where they attribute the failure of Copenhagen to the Danish presidency and the attendance of so many world leaders.