Why has Copenhagen failed and implications for next steps

Comments on Will Steffen “Climate change: a post-COP15 diagnosis”, 20/12/2009, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/12/20/a-post-cop15-diagnosis/

The difficulties in managing the enormous tasks of dealing with the externalities and free riding of climate change issues were increased by many folds by the industrialised countries demanding for targeted reductions in developing especially emerging economies, because of their greed and ignorance or deliberately using offence as defence tactics.

The Kyoto bypassed the equity this difficult equity issue by requiring industrialised countries having reduction targets and no targets for developing countries and achieved the Kyoto Protocol.

At Copenhagen, the developed countries did not mention or deliberately ignored their very unfair advantages of several times higher of their per capita emissions over the developing countries and the need for them to reduce their current levels of emissions firstly and unconditionally. Instead, they were demanding the developing countries to do this and that.

Why didn't they acknowledge the fundamental principle of equality of each and every human being in terms of the right to equal per capita emissions?

Why didn't they adopt the user pay or polluter pay principle?

Why didn't they use the clear economic principle of addressing externalities?

It begs anyone's belief that the developed countries are serious about climate change, serious about human rights, serious about poverty reduction in the world, serious about a fair deal.

Just think about the leaked draft text by Danish and its "co-authors" and one knows what the developed countries wanted to do and achieve.

They might just think that the developing world is intellectually incapable of understanding the climate change issues.

They just want to keep the developing world in “developing” in perpetual forever, so they can always enjoy the advantages they have by starving the need of the developing world of their equal per capita emissions rights and their rights to improve their living standards.

That was the fundamental cause of the failure at Copenhagen.

What lies ahead post Copenhagen? It depends on the actions of the developed countries and the ball is clearly in their court, because notwithstanding the extremely unfair state of the negotiations to developing countries, major developing economies have pledged significant reduction measures.

If they continue to act selfishly, ignorantly and arrogantly, it is unlikely to make real progress on climate change.