December 2009 is just around the corner
Many has begun to count the days, not yet to X-mas, but to the meeting in Copenhagen arranged by the United Nations.
The agenda for the meeting COP15, is to reach a global agreement about how to reduce the emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. But as time goes on, more and more people get worried that the meeting will merely be a lot of nice words, and that the agreement of Copenhagen will not be more effective than the useless Kyoto Protocol.
Most of the world’s countries will send delegates, but already now it is obvious that the countries are very far from being able to reach an agreement. It appears that the countries can be placed in some groups:
The European Union, that recently have agreed on what they will propose in Copenhagen as the goals of CO2 reductions. The EU has also agreed upon how much they will give in aid to the developing countries, in order to make it possible to continue the development in the most environmental friendly way.
However, the developing countries do not agree to the ideas of the EU. In particular the African countries have argued that the first step should be a global agreement about how much the total CO2 emissions should be reduced; the next step should be a full commitment from the industrialized countries about how Europe and the USA will participate in the solution.
Many are skeptical about whether the Copenhagen meeting will result in a bad deal, or no deal at all. The reason for the skepticism is nourished by the dispute between Europe and the USA. Sweden’s Prime Minster F.Reinfeldt, representing the entire EU had a meeting with the USA President Obama few days ago; but after Reinfeldt’s return to Europe he expressed deep concern about the willingness of the USA to do their part.
About the US’ willingness to do something effective to save the climate of the world, then it should be kept in mind that the USA has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and even though the Kyoto agreement will remain as the set of rules until year 2012, then President Obama has no intention of implementing it.
The guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol are not enough! It is important the the agreement in Copenhagen is better, and demand more commitments from all countries, inclusive the USA.
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